


Maybank's Revenge

by Kihonne



Series: The Facility [2]
Category: Lab Rats (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, F/M, Major Character Injury, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2020-01-06 01:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 28,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18377876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kihonne/pseuds/Kihonne
Summary: Sequel to The Facility. It's been a few months since the kids have escaped the Facility and they're finally getting used to normal lives. But when tragedy strikes, they discover that an old enemy is back, thirsty for revenge. It's going to take all their power to face this new threat, but can they survive what may be their greatest challenge yet?Rated a High T.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own lab rats or anything from the original TV show. I only own this story, Vivyanna, any other OCs present, and anything else you don't recognize.

**Maybank's POV**

I looked at the sight before me in amazement. It had only been a few short months since I'd begun the first stage of my plan, and it was almost ready for stage two. I had my arsenal of weapons. I had the firepower I needed to complete my plan. There was only one thing standing in my way; those damn kids.

The prisoners that we'd trained in the Facility, the ones that had killed Douglas Davenport and Victor Krane, my employers. Not that much of a loss though – with them gone, I was free to use the research as I pleased. Their plan was to create an army, staring with those kids. Not a terrible plan, if it hadn't been for their obnoxious resistance. So I was going to go about in another way. The problem was, I couldn't expect those rats to stay out of my way. They were just too damn heroic.

The bionics had been raised that way, even the android had acquired their sense of bravery. The psychic was in it for the glory, he'd always liked to show off during practice. The youngest of them would follow them like a puppy, of that I was sure. Even the stupid sisters would join in, maybe not to play hero, but they would stop at nothing to take me down. So I had to find a way to work get rid of them for good.

I turned to see my two right hand soldiers standing behind me, ready for their instructions. One, a 19 year old boy with black hair and dark brown eyes, had his arms crossed, his foot tapping the ground impatiently. Clearly, I wasn't the only one eager to rid the world of those pests. As for the other, a dark-skinned girl with black hair, seemed a little more patient as she glanced out at the New York City skyline.

"Why are we waiting for?" The boy finally demanded, standing in front of me so I couldn't ignore him. "Let me get rid of those rats! You know I could."

"You might be able to kill a couple of the weaker ones before the others take care of you. I've seen you fight, don't get cocky." I snapped at him. "Don't forget that you already failed to destroy them once."

He started to retort, only to be cut off by the girl. "What are your orders, sir?" She asked, her tone lacking of any emotion. I liked that. Unlike the boy, she was obedient, patient, and intelligent. That's what I needed in my soldiers.

I smirked. "See? This one does as she's told." I commented to the boy before turning to face the girl. "Which one are you again?"

"You call me S-1, sir." She replied. I nodded.

"Right. S-1, I have a job for you." I told her, ignoring the boy's angry look. She raised her head, ready to accept her mission. "It's true that I need those brats dead, but one of them has abilities that I can use to my advantage. Get him for me."

She nodded. "Yes sir, it will be done." She replied before departing.

The boy glared at her. "You've got to give me something to do sometime!" He exclaimed, sounding frustrated. I nodded.

"Don't you worry; I've got another job for you."


	2. The First Day

**Chase's POV**

I yawned, stepping out of my bedroom and heading towards the kitchen. The now familiar sight of skyscrapers and the sounds of cars on the streets below greeted me as I entered the room. It had been only four months since my family and I had moved into our penthouse apartment and I'd long gotten used to the sounds of the always busy city. Knowing that the others would be up soon, I started making breakfast for all of us. I figured that they'd be less cranky about having to get up before seven if they had pancakes in their stomachs.

It was hard to believe how drastically our lives had changed in the past several months. This time last year, we'd be in Mission Creek, either in the lab or at school. We'd be there now, if it hadn't been for Douglas and Krane. They'd taken us from our home and forced us into a cruel torturous training program in order to turn us into the perfect soldier. Eventually we'd defeated them, but not after a few bumps in the road.

Since then, my family and our fellow former prisoners had started new lives. We were all trying to move past the horrors we'd faced and begin again.

"Morning Chase." My thoughts were interrupted by a tired greeting. I nodded at Marcus as I piled some pancakes onto a plate.

"Morning Marcus. The others up yet?" I asked. Marcus, an android who'd once been one of our greatest enemies, had been one of our fellow prisoners in the Facility. Despite all the things he'd done to us before then, he was willing to help us escape. Now with Douglas dead and Marcus having nowhere to go, Mr. Davenport had asked him to stay with us. An offer he had jumped to accept, and not just because he had a thing for my sister.

Marcus shook his head, accepting the pancakes as he sat down at the kitchen counter. "Leo is, I think. I heard him insult his alarm clock for waking him up." He chuckled. "As for Bree and Adam, their rooms were silent, so I doubt they're up yet."

I nodded again, sitting down with my own breakfast. Marcus glanced at the calendar Tasha kept on the refrigerator and sighed. "Today's the day, huh?"

"Yeah." I agreed softly. "First day of school since the Facility."

Mr. Davenport had insisted that all of us finish our educations at some private school here in the city. And by all of us, I do mean all of us. Alex and Rhyder hadn't been to school since elementary school, and the sisters Vivyanna and Roxanna had never gotten any type of education except what the agents at the Facility had given them. So, along with enough money to keep them off the streets, Mr. Davenport had offered to pay for them to go to the same school as us. Although their were some minor complaints – our favourite pyrokinetic was very much against being forced to it in a classroom for eight hours a day– we'd all agreed to go.

"What classes did you choose again?" Marcus asked. We spent a few minutes chatting about the different classes that the school offered before Leo trudged into the kitchen, his eyes still heavy with sleep.

"Morning Chase, Marcus." He mumbled, reaching for a plate of food. "Remind me again why I agreed to this?"

We exchanged looks. "Tasha didn't give you an option?" "Roxanna's going to be there?" We responded with shrugs.

Leo sent Marcus a glare, but didn't seem too annoyed. His crush on Roxy was plainly obvious; it was just a little too bad that she didn't seem interested. Leo placed his plate of pancakes on the counter then, noticing how little maple syrup was left, turned to grab some more from the fridge. He glanced over his shoulder as he did. "Morning Bree, morning Adam."

Both of my siblings were still half asleep when they stumbled into the kitchen. Bree slumped into the chair next to Marcus, crossing her arms on the counter and lying her head on them as he stroked her hair softly. I rolled my eyes at the sight. They'd been officially dating for about four months and we were all still getting used to it. Considering how intense things had been in the past, it was almost surprising that Marcus and Bree could make such a good couple. Then again, maybe our pasts were the reason they worked so well together. Meanwhile, Adam headed straight for the fridge, ignoring everyone else until his stomach was full of food and orange juice.

Mr. Davenport was up and about not long after us. Tasha's reporting job required her to already be at work before we left for school, so she was usually gone before any of us woke up. But since Mr. Davenport was still running his own company, he pretty much chose his own hours. The only difference was that due to our apartment, we could no longer have a lab in the house. But it wasn't a big deal because Mr. Davenport had built a bigger lab about a ten minute walk from here.

"Keep out of trouble." He instructed as we grabbed our bags. "And try to keep the others out of trouble too."

"We'll behave, Mr. Davenport." I assured him. He gave me a look.

"I'm serious Chase. I don't want to get a phone call from the principal saying that you've all been suspended because your girlfriend decided to set something on fire or something."

"We'll keep Vivyanna away from anything flammable." Marcus assured him, pushing the rest of us out the door before he could think of something else that could go wrong. "God, he's a worrywart, isn't he?"

"It's been worse since the Facility." Adam admitted as we headed towards the subway. We all nodded in agreement. Suddenly, Marcus' phone vibrated. He quickly checked the text message, chuckling as he did.

"Who's it from?" Bree asked curiously. Marcus laughed.

"Alex. It's his first day of middle school and he's obviously excited." He explained. He looked at us. "Seriously. In his own words, he's 'way excited to meet new people, especially ladies, because all the ones he knows are either taken, too old for him, or both'."

We laughed at Alex's excitement. That kid would get excited over the smallest things, but it was nice to see that he was relaxing into normal life with so much ease. Mr. Davenport had worried about that actually. Unlike me and my siblings, none of the others had had anything resembling normal lives before the Facility. It wasn't clear how long Vivyanna and Roxanna were there for, but considering that the only things they seemed to know were survival and how to steal things, we suspected that it had been for a very, very long time. Rhyder had been taken when he was thirteen, but with the way his parents had reacted to his psychic dreams, it couldn't have been easy. And little Alex had been so young that he didn't remember much else.

But much to our surprise, they'd adapted really well. One of the skills we'd all picked up from Special Agent Maybank's training, I suppose. But after getting past a few obstacles (namely money and fake IDs) they managed to pass as normal teenagers for the most part. With the exception of a few fires, unexplainable ice storms, Rhyder's nightmares and the way Alex would speak at 70 miles an hour when he got excited or nervous, of course.

Finally the train came to a stop and we all climbed on. Our two favourite sisters were waiting for us, backpacks slung around their shoulders. "Did Alex text you as well?" Roxanna asked with a smile. Leo nodded.

"Yeah, seems pretty excited." He replied. I smiled at Vivyanna, who responded with a frown.

"Do I really have to do this school thing?" She complained, grabbing hold of one of the metal bars on the train as it began to move again. "I mean, I'm perfectly fine just staying at my apartment and googling whatever I need to know."

I chuckled. "C'mon, it'll be fun."

Vivyanna crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at my comment. "Fun?"

"You do know what that is, right?" I teased. She glared at me. "Besides, we'll be able to meet new people."

"And why would I want to do that? I don't like people." She pointed out. Roxanna chuckled, having listened in on our conversation.

"Yeah, that's for sure." She agreed. Vivyanna didn't look back, but elbowed her sister in the ribs, still frowning.

"Think about it this way; if you're stuck being around us all the time, you'll eventually get sick of us." I pointed out. She considered it.

"Fine." She grumbled. "But I am not doing homework."

Well, at least I convinced her not to skip. That was something. "Fine, no homework. But don't blame me if you get detention." I agreed.

The train then rolled to a stop. We filed out, heading towards our new school. This one was larger than Mission Creek High, fitting both middle school and high school in one building. It was a three floor school, and according to the website, it even had its own indoor pool.

"Hey guys!" Suddenly, Alex appeared behind us, practically bouncing in place as he grinned up at us. "Are you excited?"

"Clearly not as excited as you are." Vivyanna laughed before looking over Alex's shoulder. "Hey Rhyder. How's you aunt?"

While Vivyanna and Roxanna lived on their own, Rhyder was staying with his aunt and Alex was staying with a friend of ours, Sarah.

"She was drunk as hell – again – but at least I didn't have to hear the whole 'don't use your powers at school' speech." He replied, scratching the back of his head. Bree groaned.

"Mr. Davenport gave us the same speech." She complained.

"Same with Sarah." Alex agreed. Both Vivyanna and Roxanna smirked.

"Well, obviously we didn't. One of the benefits of living on your own." Vivyanna teased. Roxy glanced sideways at Rhyder.

"Oh, and if you ever get tired of your aunt, our couch is always open." She offered. Vivyanna looked at her.

"No, it's not." She objected. Her sister gave her a look. "Come on, Roxy! If he has a psychic dream, it's going to wake me up, and you KNOW how I hate being woken up before eight."

"Yeah, I know." Roxanna chuckled. "But did you really have to make the alarm clock spontaneously combust this morning?" She questioned. Vivyanna shrugged as the bell went off. Rhyder, Vivyanna, Roxanna and Alex all froze, not used to the school bell yet. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed Vivyanna by the hand and started pulling her to our chemistry class.

"First period starts in five. We'll see you guys later!" I called over my shoulder.

**Xxx**

The morning classes went by relatively quickly. Chemistry was fun – especially once the teacher showed us how to work the Bunsen burners. Vivyanna seemed to really enjoy playing with those – and English was fairly interesting. Although Vivyanna wasn't in that class with me, I did have Marcus and Roxy, so they made it fairly interesting. In fact, the school was so great, it almost seemed too good to be true. And it was, but I didn't find out until lunch.

"You said school would be fun. School is boring. I'm bored. I blame you." Vivyanna greeted as I walked back to my locker. She was leaning up against the locker beside it, her arms crossed. I smirked, opening my locker and shoving my books inside.

"Oh come on. Biology can't have been that bad." I commented. She raised an eyebrow.

"The teacher is worse than that stupid AI of yours. What's it's name again, Evan?" She asked.

"It's Eddy, and it can't be that bad. Besides, that's one bad teacher out of dozens. I'm sure there won't be more like him." I offered.

"Guys! Guys!" Leo cam running over, gasping for air. Noticing him and how clearly he was upset, the others made their way over to us.

"Leo? What's wrong?" Roxanna demanded, putting a hand on his shoulder. He was still trying to regain his breath. "Talk to us, midget."

"It's…it's…" He gasped. We all exchanged looks. We hadn't seen Leo this panicky in a long time. Not since…

"Is it Maybank?" Rhyder demanded. The others froze, many of them clenching their fists. But Leo shook his head.

"Worse!" He exclaimed. "It's…Perry."


	3. Dreams

**Chase's POV**

"It's…Perry!" Leo exclaimed, eyes wide with horror. Adam, Bree, Marcus and I stared at him in confusion.

"Perry?" Marcus repeated. "What do you mean it's Perry?"

"I mean, it's Perry!" Leo insisted, pointing. To our genuine surprise, we could see Perry standing across the hall, talking to one of the other teachers. Like usual, the short woman was dressed in a pantsuit, a scowl on her face.

"Who's Perry?" Alex demanded, looking at us. I chuckled, realizing how tense the others were. Leo had made such a big deal about Perryand they didn't know how who she really was. For all they knew, she was as bad as Krane. Which, I supposed she was, but not in the way that they thought.

"Relax, it's fine." I assured them. "Leo's exaggeration things. Perry's just our old prinicipal from another school. She's a total bitch, but not that bad."

"Ah." Roxanna nodded, before smirking. "You know Leo, it's okay to be scared of her."

"I'm not scared of her!" Leo practically shouted. Roxanna laughed.

"I know. I just wanted to see your reaction." She giggled, shaking her head at him. The joke had obvious calmed the others down, although Vivyanna was still staring at Perry.

"Hey Leo?" She asked, her gaze unmoving. "Want me to deal with her?"

"Yes!" "NO!" We both replied. I sent both my step-brother and my girlfriend a look before letting the latter take my hand.

"I was kidding." Vivyanna told me, although I didn't quite believe her. I smirked, about to tell her the story about the time Spike and Perry went head to head, but didn't have the chance before said evil woman walked over.

"Well, if it isn't my favourite freaks." Perry smirked arrogantly, walking up to us. Leo glared at her.

"What are you doing here, Perry?" He demanded. Perry chuckled.

"Don't you know, Dooley? I'm the new principal." She replied. Leo froze, eyes widening.

"How'd you get to be a principal in New York?" Bree demanded. Perry shrugged.

"I may or may not have been fired from Mission Creek High, they need a principal, I needed a job. Pretty simple, girlie." The woman replied. Vivyanna raised an eyebrow.

"You're the principal?" She asked before shrugging. "Okay, should be interesting."

Suddenly, the bell rang. "Well, I'm off to class." Roxanna declared. She looked at Leo. "You coming?"

"Sure thing, baby." Leo smirked. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Don't call me baby." She growled. He nodded.

"Yes m'am." He replied, following her to their next class. Vivyanna sighed.

"That is not going to end well for him." She declared. "Anyway, I've got history."

"Same here. Let's go." Rhyder nodded. "See you guys."

"Bye Vivy." I said, kissing her on the cheek. She sent me a half-hearted glare.

"Don't call me that." She replied, although there was a bit of a smile on her face. Rhyder cleared his throat then, interrupting us. "Yeah, yeah. Coming."

I chuckled, grabbing my books and heading off to my next class.

**Rhyder's POV**

_I was standing in the center of the city, fires burning all around me. The smell of smoke was thick in the air, the wailing of car horns and sirens loud. But the destruction of my new home wasn't the worst of my problems._

_There were soldiers everywhere, but they weren't ordinary soldiers. They were young, our age and they carried no weapons. Yet they still seemed to be more dangerous than anything I'd ever seen. I started towards them, confused, when I saw my friends._

_Roxanna, her skin burned and charred. Chase, face down in a pool of blood. Little Alex, his legs broken along with his neck. Adam, his too pale body drenched as if he'd just been pulled out of a river. Marcus, mechanical android parts showing through the torn skin. Bree, lying on her back with sightless eyes staring up into the sky. Vivyanna, pale and lifeless on top of a smashed in car. And Leo, mutilated to the point where I barely recognized him._

_Every one of the people I cared about were gone. Lifeless. Dead._

" _No." I shook my head in disbelief, backing away from them. They couldn't be dead. "No!"_

" _Rhyder!" A voice in my head shouted, seemingly far away. It didn't quite reach my though, as I stared down at the bodies of my friends. Adam, Bree, Vivyanna, Alex, Chase, Roxy, Leo, Marcus…all gone._

" _Rhyder? Rhyder!"_

**Xxx**

"Rhyder!" My eyes snapped open, meeting Vivyanna's blue orbs instantly. She was sitting across from me in class, her face full of concern. "What happened? What's wrong?" I couldn't answer her. I opened my mouth to speak, but the words died in my throat as I remembered the look of her dead body. I merely shook my head, focusing on steadying my breathing. She nodded to herself for a moment.

"Hang on." She looked at the teacher – I couldn't remember her name – and raised her hand.

"Miss Krane?" The woman questioned. Vivyanna gestured at me.

"I think Rhyder's ill. Can I bring him to the nurse's office?" She asked. The teacher looked at me for a moment, considering, then nodded.

"Alright. You two are dismissed." She replied. Vivyanna wasted no time, grabbing me by the arm and leading me into the hall. She didn't release me until we reached her locker. As she opened it, I slid down against them, feeling sick to my stomach. Vivyanna slid down next to me and handed me a bottle of water.

"It might help." She commented. I took it and drank from it greedily as she watched me. "Psychic dream or regular nightmare?"

I shook my head helplessly. "No idea. I used to be able to tell, but lately…" But lately all my dreams were filled with horrible things. This was the first time I'd seen something that horrific though. Vivyanna nodded.

"You're not the only one, you know. We're all having…trouble adjusting." That was Vivyanna's way of admitting that she had bad dreams too. And she was right – there wasn't one of us that didn't have them, a post-effect of the Facility.

"I…I think it was psychic. I don't want it to be, but I think it might have been. It felt more real than the other dreams." I sighed. I looked down at my feet. "God, Vivyanna, it was horrific."

"Tell me about it." She told me. And I did. I left out the details on everyone's injuries (not for her sake, but mainly because I didn't want to think about it) but told her about the army and that everyone was dead. "Well then…" She thought about it. "Aren't you Mr. Doomsday?"

"It can't be real." I muttered. "But what if…?"

"We'll stop it. We're survivors, the lot of us. You know that." She assured me. "But first things first. We need to figure out what happened. Did you see how we died? Or were we just dead bodies?"

"Um…I think Chase was stabbed or something. You had an incident with a car." I started. She let out a soft laugh.

"Okay, no more crossing the street for me." She decided jokingly. Since joking around was so out of character for her, I could tell she was trying really hard to cheer me up. A nice gesture on her part – she generally didn't care about stuff like that – but it wasn't working. "What else?"

" Leo and Marcus were pretty much torn apart." I grimaced. "Alex and Roxy had these burns on them-"

"Burns?" Vivyanna repeated, looking at me strangely. When I nodded, she bit her lip nervously, opening her fist to reveal flames dancing on them. "Like…"

"No." I cut her off before she could continue. "No, not you."

"How can you be sure? I've attacked them before." She snapped. Her eyes were narrowed, but I could tell she wasn't as angry as she was afraid. Back at the Facility, Vivy's father had done something to her. Brainwashed her, by the looks of it, and forced her to attack Chase, Marcus and Roxy. And even though they'd all assured her at least a hundred times that it wasn't her fault, it was obvious that she still felt like she was to blame. "It could happen again." Vivyanna grumbled, looking at the ground.

"Vivyanna." She didn't look up. "Vivyanna, look at me."

She raised her head, her eyes searching mine for answers. "What?" Her voice was uncharacteristically soft.

"It wasn't you, you wouldn't do that." I told her. She opened her mouth to object, but I didn't give her the chance. "You don't think we're the only ones in the world with powers, do you?"

That caught her off guard. "Pardon?"

I sighed. "Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? What are the odds that no one else in the world can do what we can? Sure, some of you guys got your powers through experiments and bionics, but Alex and I were born with our powers. Who's to say we're the only ones?"

Vivyanna leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. "You think there are others."

I nodded. "It was Alex' idea, really. And I've found things online. Rumours of a boy in the west that turn into a miniature tornado, a girl in India who can walk through walls."

"There could be someone else with pyrokinesis." She murmured. I nodded.

"Maybe. Or maybe this has nothing to do with powers." She gave me a look. "Okay, it probably does, but we can't be one hundred percent sure."

"Others with powers…" Vivyanna was clearly thinking hard about the idea. "Maybe…"

"Tell me you didn't really skip class on your first day." We looked up to see Chase standing above us, carrying both his and Vivyanna's books. He gave us a pointed look. "You promised, Vivy."

"Don't call me that." Her response, as usual, was instantaneous. She glanced at her watch. "I didn't even realize the bell rang."

"Hey, what's going on?" Roxanna walked up to us, noticing the looks on our faces. "What's wrong?"

Vivyanna and I exchanged looks. "We need to talk."


	4. Broken Promises

**Rhyder's POV**

"So you had a psychic dream that we were all going to die." Bree stated the obvious, pacing. Vivyanna had led us all onto the roof of the building, knowing that there'd be no where else that we could talk in privacy. No one, not even Chase, cared for a minute that were skipping our last period classes.

"We don't always know for sure what these dreams mean." Marcus pointed out. Alex looked at him from his spot on the ground, just below the box Vivyanna was sitting on.

"Um, this one seems pretty straight forward, Marcus." He pointed out. "We all die. The city is on fire. There are soldiers."

"Yes, but why? Who killed us and how? Who are these soldiers and what do they want?" Leo questioned. Chase thought about it.

"Well, I doubt they work for the US government, because by the sounds of it, they're the ones who attack the city." He pointed out. Vivyanna shrugged.

"Maybe we attack the city and they were sent to stop us." She suggested unhelpfully. Roxanna shoved her roughly.

"Hey, Little Miss Sunshine. We don't need your two sense." She said. Vivyanna gave her a look.

"Well then, what do you think attacked the city?" She snapped. Roxanna glared at her.

"Not us, that's for sure." She retorted.

"Ladies!" Adam cut them off. "Enough."

"Sir yes sir." Vivyanna mumbled sarcastically, sliding off her seat to sit next to Alex. The boy smiled at her, bumping her shoulder affectionately.

"Look, even if it was a psychic dream, that doesn't mean it's going to happen." Adam pointed out. He glanced at Chase. "What's that saying again? The one about stones and the future?"

It took Chase a moment to figure out what he meant, but he smirked when he did. "The future's not set in stone." He quoted. Adam nodded. "Adam's right All that's not necessarily going to happen."

"No one's going to die." Adam's tone was firm. Vivyanna looked at him.

"And you can promise that, can you?" She questioned. Clearly, the dream had put in her in a rotten mood, not that I blamed her. But Adam just nodded.

"Yeah, I do. I promise that no one on this roof is going to die." He declared. Vivyanna raised an eyebrow, likely because she knew that there was no way he could guarantee that. But instead of arguing with him, she just nodded.

"Alright then. I'll hold you to that." She told him, still a little grumpy.

"You do that." It was clear by Adam's tone that he meant it. Since everyone had gotten out of the Facility, he'd made sure to play the part of the over-protective big brother to most of the group. He was always trying to keep our spirits up and had even gotten a few laughs out of Vivyanna, who was very rarely in a laughing mood. If he promised that nothing was going to happen to any of us, he would make sure he kept that promise, no matter what.

"So, what are the odds of this just being a dream and nothing more?" Roxy looked directly at me. I shrugged, rubbing my eyes with the base of my palms.

"I thought it was real but…" I sighed. "I'm not sure anymore. It's not like any of us have had any normal dreams in the past while."

"I say we keep on acting like it was just a dream. But everyone be on guard, alright? Just to be safe." Chase looked at all of us. Vivyanna got to her feet, stretching.

"So you expect us to be looking over our shoulders every five minutes?" She questioned. Chase gave her a look. "Yeah, sure. Fine."

"It's not like we're not already being careful. Besides, we've got powers." Bree looked at us. "It'd be damn near impossible for a normal person to take us down."

"Don't get cocky." Roxanna told her. "If you get into a fight you can't win, get out of there as fast as you can."

"Got it, Mom." Alex ducked beneath Roxy's arm as she good-naturedly tried to smack him upside the head.

"So, do we head back to last period?" Marcus asked, standing besides Bree. Before anyone could answer, the final bell rang. Within seconds, students started filing out of the school, the sound of loud talking and laughter coming from the crowd. "Uh, I'll take that as a no."

"Should we tell Big D about this?" Leo questioned. Chase looked at me, as if to ask my permission. I nodded slowly.

"He should be given a heads up, just to be safe." I told him. He nodded.

"We'll tell him when he gets home from the office – he said he was doing a big presentation and would be home late." Bree decided. She grabbed Marcus' home. "Let's head home."

"You want to come over tonight, Rhyder?" Vivyanna offered. "Roxy's ordering pizza."

"I am?" Her sister looked at her, amused. Vivyanna looked at her.

"That's what I said, isn't it?" She questioned. She glanced at Rhyder. "So, you ditching the evil aunt and joining us?"

I thought about it. It was fairly obvious that Vivyanna was trying to distract me from my dream with the promise of food. And it would be nice to get away from the house. But then again, maybe I needed some time to cool off.

"Maybe. We'll see." I sighed before realizing that I left my stuff in my third period class. "Crap, I need to get my bags from History."

"You're going to miss the subway if you don't hurry up." Roxanna warned, already shouldering her bag. I shrugged.

"I'll walk then. I left my house keys in the bag." I mention to them. Chase looked like he wanted to argue, but Adam spoke up first.

"I'll come with you." He offered. "I wanted to stop by the candy store and pick up some stuff."

I shrugged. "Alright, cool. C'mon."

We waved goodbye to the others and headed down to the class. "So, did you really want candy, or did you just not want to listen to Chase go on and on about how cool school is?" I asked, grabbing my bag. Adam chuckled.

"Both." He smiled, shouldering his own bag. "That, and Leo's going to be complaining the entire time."

"Fair point. Him and Vivyanna don't seem to like school very much." I mentioned. He shook his head.

"No, they do not." He agreed. "Ten bucks says one of them try to ditch tomorrow."

"You're so on." I grinned at him as we walked down the street. "So where's this candy store?"

"Sweet Expectations is down on 8th, near the pier." He replied. "Mr. Davenport brought us there our first week in the city. Bought a month's worth of jelly beans."

"And you guys went through them all in a week, didn't you?" I guessed. He rolled his eyes.

"I gave my share to Alex." He told me. I frowned.

"How come?" I asked, knowing how much he liked his junk food. He shrugged.

"I figured the kid could use a treat after everything we'd been through." He replied. "He's only twelve."

"He and Mira could have had completely normal lives." I agreed as we headed down to the pier. "We all could have."

"And they ruined it." Adam muttered. "We failed Mira, I can't let that happen again.

"Adam, what happened to Mira was Derek's fault." I began. He shook his head.

"I promised her that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. And then Derek murdered her." He looked at me. "I should have protected her better."

"There was nothing you could do." I pointed out. "Man, you can't blame yourself."

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean I can't do anything now." He decided. "If your dreams come true, I won't let them kill any of us."

"They won't. Like you said, the future's not set in stone." I agreed. "Now, c'mon. Enough of this serious talk. I want some junk food."

He laughed and we walked into the candy store. It was actually pretty quiet in there, the only person in there being the cashier. The man nodded at us as we entered, before going back to the magazine in his lap.

I grabbed some stuff pretty quick – it's hard to resist a bag full of liquorice – but Adam was taking forever. He'd found the jelly bean dispenser and twenty minutes later, he was still trying to figure out what flavours to get. Bored and having already paid for my stuff, I leaned against the window, waiting.

"How can a kid be bored in a candy store?" I turned to see a fairly pretty girl with dark hair standing in front of the chocolate bar display, a smirk on her face. A little surprised that she was talking to me (although I thought I was quite handsome, I didn't exactly stand out in a crowd) I smiled nervously.

"Uh…" She laughed at my reaction.

"I was kidding." She assured me. "You're kinda cute when you're nervous."

"Thanks." I grinned back at her. She sent me a flirty smile before flipping her hair over her shoulder. She started towards the door, not bothering to buy anything. She stopped at the door. "Coming, sugar?"

My eyes widened as she walked out. Damn, she was hot. And there really wasn't any harm in talking to a pretty girl, right? I glanced back at Adam, who was still preoccupied with his candy. Well, he wouldn't be needing me anytime soon.

I ducked outside, following the girl as she slowly walked out onto the boardwalk. She looked back at me, flashing those brown eyes at me before turning the corner. I followed her, only for her to stop at the side of it. "So," I leaned against the wall, pushing my bangs away from my face, smirking at her. "What's your name, pretty lady?"

She smiled at me, twirling her hair. "S-1."

And suddenly, the atmosphere changed. Her smile fell, and I sensed multiple presences appear. I spun around to see multiple people, ranging from the ages late teens and to early 20s. I pushed away from the wall, looking at them. This was not good. "You have friends…" I observed, looking sideways at the girl so I could keep all of them within eyeshot. "You know lady, you're kinda sending me mixed signals here."

The girl didn't so much as blink. "Get him."

The guys came at me and I reacted instinctively, pushing them away with my psychic abilities. Knowing it wouldn't hold them off for long, I bolted towards the front of the shop, running straight into Adam.

"Dude, where'd you go?" He asked jokingly. Then, noticing my expression, his face darkened. "What's wrong?"

"Hot girl, not so nice friends." I explained, starting to back away. Suddenly, the people appeared around us. And I don't mean 'appeared' as in we didn't see them coming, I mean 'appeared' as in one second we were alone, then they were. Like they teleported or something.

"I didn't say you could leave." The girl looked at me, frowning. Then she glanced at Adam. "Do yourself a favour man. Get out of here."

Adam looked at me, then back at her. "Not gonna happen."

"Your choice." She raised a hand and suddenly, we both went airborne. I found myself crashing through the candy store window, glass biting into my back the second I hit the ground. I coughed painfully, but before I could get to my feet, two of those freaks were standing above me. One attempted to pull me to my feet, but I kicked him in the shin, elbowing the other in the face.

"Adam!" I called, seeing him trying to get three of the guys off of him. Before I could get to him though, a guy tried to tackle me from behind me. I twisted around as he did; letting the guy fall off me and into the shattered glass we were standing in. But I'd forgotten about the other guy.

"You son of a-" The guy whom I elbowed in the face threw a punch at my face, knocking me back several feet. Before I could recover, I was thrown to the ground. I landed in the pile of glass, and within seconds received several kicks to my ribcage. Curling in on myself for protection, I tried to focus my psychic energy. After a particularly bad blow, I let it out, throwing the asshole into the door. I leapt to my feet, the adrenaline allowing me to ignore the pain. For now.

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten about the other guy. He grabbed me by the neck, throwing me up against the wall. I scrambled at the thick fingers around my neck, unable to pry them off as he lifted me off my feet. My eyes widened as he continued to prevent oxygen from entering my lungs. This guy had super-strength. He had to – no one but Adam was this strong.

I gasped for air, unable to free myself. My head was already going fuzzy, panic was setting in. I couldn't think, couldn't even reach for my powers. But I knew one thing – I was in some serious, serious trouble. Black dots danced across my vision as my brain started to shut down. My attempts to escape grew slower and weaker until…

I coughed violently as I hit the ground, my attacker suddenly releasing me. I lay on the ground for a minute, unable to do anything but cough and splutter in an attempt to stay conscious. My head was still clouded from the oxygen deprivation, and I couldn't do anything to fight back when I was pulled upwards and dragged out of the store.

"We got the boy!" One of them shouted as they pulled my half-conscious body out of the wreckage of the store. Part of my mind wondered what happened to that store owner, and the other part of my mind didn't give a crap. "What are you going to do about that one?"

I raised my head blearily to see Adam being restrained by several guys, a bloody gash on his forehead. He was conscious and clearly pissed off, but unable to escape. The girl, S-1 or whatever, observed him for a moment, then sighed.

"I tried to warn him." She murmured before turned to a tall guy next to her. "Finish it."

Both Adam and I froze when we saw the gun. The guy pulled it out quick as Adam and I began to struggle. "Leave me alone, you freaks!" Adam shouted furiously. But it was too late. The guy pointed it at his head and in one quick movement, pulled the trigger.

"No!" I shouted, slumping in my attackers' grip as I watched Adam's body go limp and lifeless. No…Not Adam…

"Get rid of the body." The girl ordered before turning to me. She bent down, cupping my chin in her hand. "Now as for you-"

"Get it over with already." I muttered, eyeing the gun. I was next, I knew it. But the girl just shook her head.

"I didn't want to kill him, but he got in our way. And I'm not going to kill you." She told me. I frowned, confused.

"What?" I blinked, baffled. She shook her head.

"No. A friend of mine wants to see you." She released me and looked at the guy with the gun. "We need him alive." She looked at the guys still holding Adam's body. "Get rid of it!"

They nodded quickly, disappearing from my field of vision as the guy with the gun stood in front of me, the weapon raised. He swung it down quickly, and everything went black.


	5. Taken

**Vivyanna's POV**

Okay, so although it was a school night (and according to Roxy, that means we're not allowed to stay up too late) I had ignored my sister's suggestion to hit the hay early and was up in my bedroom, watching some stupid spy movie. It wasn't really interesting in my opinion, but I had nothing better to do and distracting myself with TV was better than dwelling on Rhyder's dream. Because every time I thought about it, my mind raced back to the confining and blood covered walls of the Facility, and to the thought of losing my sister. Not exactly something I wanted to be thinking off before I actually got some sleep. I had enough nightmares without apocalyptic psychic dreams to worry about.

Besides, what was the point in worrying about what wasn't going to happen? I mean, the chances of Rhyder being wrong were fairly high – everyone's dreams had been pretty messed up since we'd won our freedom – and besides, who could actually take us in a fight? Derek was gone, Dad was gone, Douglas was gone, who did we have to fear? Maybank? He was nothing without his agents.

I started suddenly, the sudden ringing of my cell phone catching me off guard. Shaking my head, I reached for the phone, picking it up on the second ring. "Hello?"

" _Vivyanna, hey."_  It was Chase. Of course. Who else would be calling at this late hour?

"Hey." I couldn't help the soft smile on my face. "Were you going to come over tonight?"

" _Uh, no."_  Oh well. I guess the TV could entertain me well enough.  _"Actually, I needed to talk to you."_

"About what?" I asked, lying down on my stomach and staring up at the James Bond fight scene.

" _Have you seen Adam? He's missing."_  That caught my attention. I sat up, turning off the TV.

"Missing?" I echoed. I thought back to Rhyder's dream, but tried to ignore the pit growing in my stomach. "Could he be lost? I mean, it IS Adam, and we do live in New York. It wouldn't be the first time."

" _I know that, Vivyanna, but usually he's called by now. Or found his way to someone's place."_  He responded, starting to sound frustrated with me.

"Maybe his phone is dead." I suggested, as I climbed out of bed. "And I'm sure he'll turn up eventually."

" _I don't-"_ He began, but I cut him off.

"Chase, the boy has super strength and heat vision. What's the worst thing that can happen to him?" I questioned, pushing open my sister's bedroom door.

" _Vivyanna, I'm seriously starting to get worried here. And there's something else…"_ Chase told me. I nodded.

"One sec." I interrupted him, glancing at my sleeping sister. "Yo, Roxy!"

"Wha…?" Roxy sat up slowly, blinking the sleep from her eyes. "Vivy?"

"Don't call me that." The usual response slipped off my tongue before I got to business. "Have you spoken to Adam since this afternoon?"

"No. Have you tried Rhyder?" She asked, swinging her legs off the table. "Weren't they supposed to go candy shopping earlier?"

"Okay, thanks." I spoke into the phone. "Roxy hasn't seen him either, but says to ask Rhyder."

" _Yeah, that's the other thing."_  Chase replied, his tone dead serious.  _"Rhyder's missing too."_

My eyes widened slightly. One of our friends going AWOL for a few hours in the big city? No big deal. But two of them? Then something's up.

"We'll be at your place in ten minutes."

**Rhyder's POV**

I groaned, rolling over onto my side and slowly opening my eyes. My eyelids felt heavy, and keeping them open was a challenge, but after a few seconds my blurry vision cleared and I could see my surroundings better. I was lying on a hard cot in what looked like a musky basement, complete with a leaky faucet on the far side and cobwebs in the corner of the walls. The only source of light was coming from the door at the top of the stairs.

Doing a quick inventory of my injuries (all superficial) I noticed a strange black, watch-like item on my wrist. I tried to pull it off, but the damn thing wouldn't budge in the slightest. Frowning not only from confusion but the aching pain in my head, I attempted to get up. Only for me to be stopped by a chain keeping me locked to the cot. "Hey!" I complained, pulling on it. What the hell was going on?

The memories hit me in a blinding rush, all of them at once. The attack on the pier. That damn girl. Adam's death. God…not Adam. He was one of the best friends I'd ever had (granted, I never really had many, but still). I couldn't believe he was gone.

"About time you woke up." My head shot up at the sound of the girl's voice. She was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, her elbows resting on her knees as she watched me. "I was starting to get worried."

"Worried?" I was unable to keep the snarl of fury out of my tone. When I got out of here, she was going to die for what happened to Adam.

The girl, S-1, merely nodded. "Well, sure. If Charlie hurt you more than we were allowed, I might get in trouble."

"You think I care?" I demanded, pulling at the chains around my leg angrily. "You killed one of my best friends."

"I'm sorry about that." She lied. I rolled my eyes.

"Of course you are." I glared at her. She nodded.

"I am. We had orders to capture, not kill. And I did warn him to stay out of the way." She insisted, looking at me with narrowed brown eyes. "How is it my fault that he insisted on attacking the men assigned to me?"

"You…" I shook my head at her. "You little bitch."

"That was uncalled for, don't you think?" She cocked her head to the side, her posture slightly resembling a cat's. I just stared at her. I wanted to be mad, I wanted to scream and fight her. But unfortunately, that wasn't an option in my current position.

"You had orders to capture me." I commented, not taking my eyes off of her in case she did anything. "Why?"

"My boss would like to speak with you." She replied boredly.

"Why?" I repeated my questioned. She smiled slightly. Looking at her fingertips.

"You're going to have to ask him that when he gets back." She replied. I raised an eyebrow.

"So what are you doing down here? You come to mock me?" I asked grouchily.

"Someone has to guard you, make sure you don't try to escape." She replied, leaning against the wall. "And I got assigned to guard duty."

"Yeah, well good luck with that sweetheart. I'm outta here." I raised my hands at her, attempting to throw her into the far wall with my psychic powers. Nothing. I furrowed my brow, trying with everything I had. I knew I had the power to destroy this room if I wanted to, but still, nothing happened. "What?" I breathed out, shocked.

"Your psychic won't work with that power-restrainer on your wrist. I mean, you'll still have dreams, but the telekinesis and the rest of it? That won't work." She mentioned, nodding at the black watch-like device. "And before you try to rip it off, you should probably know that it's made with a high-entropy alloy, as strong as titanium but as light as aluminum. Even the strong one couldn't…" She broke off, realizing that she was talking about Adam. "Anyway, you can't break it, so I wouldn't waste your breath."

I glared at her, adjusting my seat on the bed. This was going to be a long day.

**Vivyanna's POV**

"So, Adam and Rhyder are missing?" Alex asked the second Davenport opened the front door. On our way over, Roxy and I had picked up the kid, wanting to make sure he was fine.

"Yeah." Davenport nodded, looking tired. Chase, Bree, Leo and Marcus were all up, all looking like they'd gotten no sleep. "We'd hoped that Adam had crashed at your place or Rhyder's for the night, but he's not answering his phone and Rhyder's aunt says he hasn't been home since this morning."

"And we're only finding out about this now? Why didn't you call earlier?" Roxanna demanded, tossing her coat onto the nearest couch.

"Like I said, we thought he was at one of your guys' places and forgot to call. But when Rhyder's aunt called here, demanding where he was, we figured that something was up." Davenport told her. I nodded.

"What about that GPS thingy?" Davenport had mentioned a while ago that his kids, being bionic, and Marcus, being an android, all had GPS built into their systems and that it was how them found us after our escape from the Facility.

"The program's running, but all there are a million different interferences coming from the different devices all over the city." Chase replied, looking back at the computer on a desk in the living room. "It could take a while."

"Watch them have snuck in Rhyder's house without his aunt knowing." Alex joked lightly, trying to bring up the mood in the room. Bree nodded.

"Yeah, but I figured that we could go out on our own and look, while that's taking it's time." She suggested. Davenport sighed.

"Be careful." He warned. We all nodded solemnly. If something could happen to our resident psychic and strongman, then something could just as easily happen to us.

"Groups of two." Chase suggested. "Roxy and Vivyanna, me and Leo, Marcus and Bree."

"What about me?" Alex asked, a little annoyed at being left out.

"Oh no. You're staying here and helping with the program." I told him, pushing him towards the desk.

"Why?" He demanded.

"Because you're short and if anyone's gonna get kidnapped, it's gonna be the kid." I pointed out. He glared at me, but sat down anyway.

"Take the spare comm sets. I'll call when I get something." He sighed. "I hope you guys find them."

"Don't worry kiddo – I'm sure they're alright." I called over my shoulder before following my sister out of the apartment.

I never thought I could be more wrong.

**Xxx**

Three hours later, and there was still no sign of them. By this point, it was past midnight, but the lights of the city hadn't dimmed in the slightest. In fact, there seemed to be more people than during the day.

"Excuse me." I glared at an especially rude man as he pushed past. "Why don't you look where you're going, buddy?"

"Vivy…" Roxanna warned.

"Don't call me that." I glared back before looking at the pier. Almost empty, with the exception of a few bars that were filling up fairly quickly. If we hadn't been looking for the boys, I would have ditched Roxy by now and sneaked in for a drink, but unfortunately, that wasn't going to be happening tonight. And if the growing pit in my stomach hinted at anything, I wouldn't be getting the chance to relax for a long time.

Roxanna looked back at the candy store that we'd just exited. By the looks of things, there'd been some sort of brawl, though the owner insisted that it was just a bunch of 'hooligans trying to mess up his business'. "Think he's lying?" Roxanna asked, gesturing at the man.

"Not sure." I shrugged. "I mean, it'd be one hell of a coincidence that the guys disappeared from the area on the same day, but do you really think a bunch of kids could take them down?"

Roxanna nodded. "Fair point." She agreed. Suddenly, both of our comm came to life, the familiar buzz of technology filling the ears they were in.

" _Hey, you guys find them yet?"_  Alex asked, straight to the point. I smiled despite myself.

"Damn, I forgot how cool these comm sets were." I muttered. "Not yet Quicky. Anyone else?"

" _We just swept 5_ _th_ _through 23_ _rd_ _. Nothing."_  Bree replied.

" _We're coming up blank too."_  Leo sighed.

" _Well, the GPS finally started working. Who's closest to the pier?"_  Alex asked.

Roxanna and I exchanged looks. "That's where we are, Alex. But they're not here. We've checked everywhere."

"Not the bars." I muttered, only to get a cold look from her.

" _Well, that's where the signal's coming from. But it's weird. It's flashing, not a steady signal."_  I frowned.

"That's strange. Why would it be malfunctioning?" I thought aloud.

" _No idea. They aren't supposed to."_  Chase replied, sounding just as confused and even more worried than I was.

"Send us the coordinates, Alex." Roxanna suggested. "We'll take another look around."

" _Alright. Good luck."_  The comm set's signal died and our phones buzzed with coordinates.

"Okay, it looks like the signal's coming from the below the pier itself." Roxanna said, glancing at our feet. "I'll take left, you take right?"

"Right." I nodded, walking over to the edge of the pier. I glanced around to make sure no one was looking, then climbed over the edge and jumped down. I scowled as water filled my sneakers, the annoyingly cold water hitting my ankles. I heard a splash from the other side and deciding that it must be Roxy, started my search.

Since Roxy had the only flashlight, I opened my palm, a small ball of fire appearing. It gave me just enough light to see the dark, choppy waves. At first, I couldn't see more than the almost ink-black water and several pieces of trash that had floated up towards me, but as I continued, the amount of trash seemed to dissipate.

"Rhyder?" I called hesitantly into the darkness. It wasn't that I was afraid of the dark, but the mixture of dark and cold water was grating on my nerves just a bit. If something did happen down here, it would be pretty hard to use my fire. "Adam? C'mon guys, this isn't funny."

Still, nothing. "I swear, if you guys are punking us, I'm gon-"

My voice died in my throat when I caught sight of a large, human shaped lump on the edge of the sandy beach beneath the wooden pier. I started towards it cautiously, praying that it wasn't who I thought it was.

"Oh no." I murmured, turning the body over. Adam's too pale, too lifeless face looked back at me, his once happy eyes blank and sightless. I could already tell the method of…of murder, just by looking at the bullet hole in his forehead. "R-Roxy?"

"Vivy?" My sister picked up on my tone immediately.

"I…I found Adam." I stood up, grief washing over me. The poor guy…he didn't deserve this. And if he was dead, who knew about Rhyder. "He's dead."

**Rhyder's POV**

Several long hours later of me glaring at S-1 and her trying to coax me into a stupid conversation, the door at the top of the stairs opened. S-1 jumped to her feet, saluting the dark figure at the top. "Sir!"

"Well done, S-1." I froze, not even breathing when I heard that voice. No. No, it couldn't be! "I might have to give you a promotion for this."

"No…" I sank to my knees. This couldn't be happening. Not now. We were supposed to be safe.

The man walked down the stairs, coming to stand on the step beside S-1. "Ah yes, the psychic. Rhyder, isn't it?"

"Maybank…" I breathed in recognition, horror filling me from top to bottom. I knew, in that second, that my nightmares were about to become reality.


	6. Revenge

**Vivyanna's POV**

I leaned against the kitchen counter, staring at the glass of water in my hands. The room was silent, had been since we got back just over an hour ago. Adam…his body…was lying on the bed in the other room, the door slightly ajar.

Bree had retreated into her room the second we'd returned to the apartment, tears streaming down her face and Marcus chasing after her. The sounds of crying had only recently died down, but we all had silently agreed to give them some space.

Leo was still pacing the room, occasionally stopping for a few moments only to start again after furiously wiping at his eyes. Alex sat on nearby him, eyes focused on the door to Adam's room, as if he expected the older boy to walk out any second.

It was Chase's reaction to all this that worried me the most though. He hadn't said a word, hadn't even glanced at me since Roxy and I had half-dragged, half-carried Adam out of the water. Instead, he'd been eerily quiet, his cold, hard eyes glaring at the front door.

"You should talk to him." Roxanna's soft whispered startled me a little bit, as I was too lost in my thoughts to notice her approach. I frowned at her.

"Sorry?" I hadn't been paying attention. She sighed.

"Chase. You should talk to him." She murmured, glancing his way. I shrugged.

"I tried, Roxy. I spent a good half hour trying to talk to him, but he kept pushing me away." I looked at her. "I think he wants to be alone."

"I think-" She broke off as the front door opened and Davenport trudged in, still looking distraught. And who could blame him? He just lost his older son, and we had no idea what had happened to him.

"Where are Bree and Marcus?" He asked, his voice rough. I jerked my head towards the girl's bedroom, but before he could head towards it, the door swung open. Marcus walked out, leading Bree by the hand to the couch.

"You okay?" Alex asked, looking up at her. She gave him a harsh glare.

"What do you think?" She snapped. Alex flinched at her tone, looking down.

"Right, sorry. That was stupid." He apologized.

She ignored him, instead looking up at Davenport with puffy eyes. "What are we going to do? She asked, nodding at Adam's room.

Davenport sighed. "We could go to the police," he began, but Roxy quickly stopped that train of thought.

"Sir, are you sure that's a good idea?" She interjected as Marcus passed her on the way to the sink. Leo frowned at her.

"Why wouldn't it be?" He demanded, annoyed. Roxanna glanced at me, and when I didn't speak up, she sighed.

"Look, whatever…did that to Adam," She began slowly, choosing her words carefully. "can't be…normal, can it? I mean, Adam's got freaking super strength and heat vision. It would take someone extremely powerful to take him out."

"You think it's someone with powers." Marcus commented, coming back into the room with two glasses of water. He sat down next to Bree, handing her a glass. She took it gratefully, staring down at the cool water.

"Well, what else could it be?" I questioned. "And if it is someone with powers, do we really need to get cops or, god forbid, government officials into this?"

"So what do you expect us to do?" Leo demanded. "We can't just do nothing. They can't get away with this!"

"We'll get revenge." We all looked at Chase in surprise. His voice was low and angry, and I could tell he was forcing it to stay steady. He looked everyone in the eyes. "We find the bastards that did this, and make them pay."

"Of course we will." Marcus agreed, his voice reasonably calmer. "But first we need to figure out who did this."

"And where Rhyder is." Alex added. We all exchanged glances. Alex was trying to be optimistic, but the rest of us were realists.

"Quicky…" I sighed. "Rhyder's…well, he's gone."

"Gone?" The younger boy echoed, looking at me. "You don't know that."

"I think it's a pretty safe bet that he's dead and that his body's still floating out there in the water." I told him. Every pair of eyes in the room turned on me. "What? We were all thinking it. Adam and Rhyder were together when Adam was killed, and that means whoever killed Adam, killed Rhyder too. They wouldn't want witnesses."

"Don't say that." Alex told me, tears swimming in his eyes. "I don't want to lose anyone else."

"And we won't." Roxy promised, giving me a glare. I shrugged, narrowing my eyes at her. Someone had to say it, and I figured that no one else was going to. "So, the question is, who's behind this?"

"I'm going to try and get a hold of the security footage from the store." Davenport decided. "I could use some help with that."

He glanced at Chase, but the boy didn't move. "I'll help." Marcus offered, glancing at Chase, then looking pointedly at me. 'Talk to him' he mouthed before kissing Bree on the forehead. "You helping?"

"Uh..yeah…" Bree nodded, wiping at her face once before following him and Davenport into the man's office. Roxy looked at Alex.

"You should call Sarah." She suggested kindly. "Tell her what happened, and that you're staying here."

"I can't go home?" He asked. I shook my head, agreeing wholeheartedly with my sister.

"Too dangerous for you to be one your own." I agreed. Alex nodded and walked into the other room, presumably to find a phone. Leo looked at us the second he left.

"You two think that this has something to do with Rhyder's vision." He stated. We both nodded silently. "And you didn't want to mention anything earlier?"

"Davenport knows about his vision, and Marcus agrees with our suspicions." Roxy commented.

"We just didn't want to scare Alex." I murmured. Chase started suddenly, heading for the stairs to the roof.

"Where're you going?" Roxy called, glancing at him warily.

"Getting some air." He muttered, not stopping. We all flinched when we heard the door slam shut. Leo and Roxy both looked at me, but I was already moving before they could say anything.

"Yeah, yeah. Talk to him. I got it." I assured them, running up the stairs, two at a time. I found Chase at the edge of the room, his head bowed into his arms as he leaned on the railing. I moved to stand beside him, not saying anything for a while.

What the hell was I supposed to say? That I understood what he was going through? I probably didn't, and we both knew that. I wasn't that good at the whole comforting thing, nor was I the best at dealing with bad situations. My solution for crap like this was setting things on fire, which even I had to admit was not a good way at handling things.

"You should go back downstairs, see if Alex is okay." Chase murmured after a long time, not raising his head to look at me. "He's probably shaken up."

"Roxy's got that covered." I replied. "Besides, you shouldn't be up here alone."

"Because some flying attacked might get me?" He chuckled darkly. I shook my head.

"Because you're upset and people that are upset tend to do stupid things." I mentioned. He turned his head, glaring up at me. "And I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine." He growled. I raised an eyebrow.

"Sure you are." I replied sarcastically.

"I  _am_." He insisted. I sighed.

"Chase, you refused to so much as look at anyone for nearly an hour, and when you finally speak, all you want is revenge." I pointed out. He glared at me, standing up straight.

"Why shouldn't I want revenge? He demanded, raising his voice. I forced myself to keep my tone lowered, not about to start screaming back at him.

"I never said you shouldn't, but it's n-"

He cut me off, glaring daggers at me. "You'd want revenge, wouldn't you? I know you, Vivy, and you would do everything you could to get back at them."

"Yeah, I would. I would kill those bastards. I would make them suffer." I agreed. "But that's me, Chase. Not you. You're the nice one. You're the calm one, the one that doesn't try to murder assholes."

"Well, these assholes deserve it." He muttered. I nodded.

"Agreed. Just…just try and keep a level head about this, okay?" He looked at me." I know you're hurting, and I know you want to make them hurt twice as bad, that I get. But don't become something you're not just to get revenge, alright?"

He sighed and looked back out at the city. I waited patiently for his response. I wasn't going to be satisfied until I got one.

"Alright. Fine." He muttered. "I won't do anything crazy."

"That's all I ask." I smiled sadly at him. He nodded, then looked at me.

"Who do you think is doing this?" He asked after a minute. I shrugged.

"Not sure. Maybe there was another Facility? One with more powerful freaks?" I suggested. Chase rolled his eyes at the word freaks – while I saw us as freaks of nature, he saw us as people with gifts – but seemed to consider it.

"Maybe…we never did find out what happened to Maybank." He mentioned. I frowned.

"I don't know Chase. He's just a normal person. A sociopath, but still. He's powerless, and without our fathers' support, I don't know how far he could really go." I mentioned.

"Still, it's a possibility." He mumbled. I nodded, looking out at the sky. The sun was just starting to rise, orange colouring the previously dark sky.

It was a new day, one our friends would never get the chance to see. And whoever was responsible for that wasn't going to get away with it.


	7. Familiar Faces

**Rhyder's POV**

"Maybank…" I breathed in horror, staring at the man that had haunted my nightmares since the Facility had been destroyed. "How…"

"Did I find you? I have my ways." He chuckled cruelly. He looked at S-1. "I take it everything went as planned?"

She hesitated. "…Not quite sir." Maybank raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to explain. "The strong one, Adam Davenport, he interfered. We had to get rid of him."

"You imbecile!" Maybank snapped, causing the girl to shrink back a little. Clearly, she was aware of his obvious anger issues. "I told you not to draw attention to yourself!"

"We-we did our best, sir. The boy just got in the way." S-1 tried to defend herself. "And we dealt with it quickly. No one saw anything and we dumped the body in the ocean. No one's going to find it."

"Unless it washes up on shore." Maybank growled. I sat back on the cot, kinda glad that the conversation wasn't focused on me. "One of them goes missing, it's not a problem. It's New York, things like that happen all the time. But two of their little group of freaks disappears, they're going to realize that something's up!"

"I…I'm sorry sir." She mumbled, bowing her head. He let out a harsh sigh.

"I will deal with you later. Leave us." He ordered. S-1 practically fled the room, closing the door tightly behind her. Maybank turned back to me. "Where were we?"

"You killed my friend." I growled, fighting to keep my voice steady. "You kidnapped me. Why?"

"The Davenport boy wasn't supposed to die yet, but he would have died eventually, alongside the others." Maybank replied, beginning to pace the room slowly. I crouched low on the bed, ready to fight back if he suddenly attacked me. "As for you, Rhyder…I need your help."

"My help?" I nearly spat. Was this guy completely and utterly mental? How could I help him? WHY would I help him?

"Yes. You see, Rhyder, I'm about to take over, whether you like it or not. Your friends won't be a problem, not once they meet my soldiers. But I'd like to guarantee my victory. Your visions could prove very useful to me. Not to mention, the less your friends know about the future, the better."

He wanted to use me against my friends. "Why would I help you?" I demanded, fuming in anger.

"Because I can make your life miserable if you don't." Maybank growled, stopping his pacing. A smirk rose to my lips.

"You already did that, remember? You couldn't break me in the Facility, you can't break me now." I told him, knowing it was true. There was nothing Maybank could do to get me to help him. He chuckled darkly.

"Rhyder, Rhyder, Rhyder…I don't need your cooperation. I can get the information I need whether you agree or not. But I'm a nice guy," I scoffed loudly at that, "so I'm giving you a choice. Help me willingly, and I'll let you live. Don't agree to help me and you'll die a slow, painful death. It's your choice."

I glared at him for a minute. Then, "Go to hell."

Maybank smirked as if he'd expected that answer. "Very well then." He nodded and climbed a couple of stairs. He stopped halfway though. "I know that you've just lost a good friend of yours, so I figured I'd bring you another one to talk to."

Another friend? Had Maybank kidnapped one of the others to use against me or something?

I almost wished he had when I saw who was coming down the stairs. "Hello freak." He greeted. I blinked in surprise.

"Derek?" Obviously, Leo wasn't as good at killing people as he originally thought, because there he stood. Derek looked relatively the same, with the same long black hair and black eyes. The most significant difference was the long, jagged scar reaching from the left side of his hairline all the way down his jaw.

"Been a while, psycho…sorry, psychic." He mocked, cracking his knuckles. I blinked in surprise, too shocked to move. How could he be alive?

"You-you're supposed to be dead." I exclaimed, eyes wide. He nodded.

"Yeah, you're little buddy tried hard, didn't he? I suppose you all thought he avenged the banshee girl's death for you, right? Guess again. I'm back." He gestured at the scar on his face. "Got Dooley to thank for this though. But don't worry, I'm going to return the favour."

"Leave me alone." I growled, hoping that Maybank would call him off. I mean, obviously the man needed me alive, and Derek had the bad habit of killing his opponents. Not to mention, I was powerless at the moment, and I highly doubted that Derek would be this confident unless he could use my abilities.

"Nah, I wanted to…have a little fun." Derek smirked cockily before raising a hand. My body flew into the air and hit the wall, pinned against it by an invisible, telekinetic force.

"I need him alive, son." Maybank warned, starting up the stairs again. Derek didn't answer, his smirk growing. "Derek?"

"Alive, I got it. But unharmed?" He questioned. I gulped nervously, trying desperately to escape. But I knew it was hopeless – no one knew my telekinesis better than me and Derek was cruelly using my own powers against me.

Maybank chuckled. "Enjoy yourselves." He replied before leaving me alone with Derek.

"Oh, I will." Suddenly, the grip that was holding me to the wall grew stronger, the air escaping my lungs as the pressure on my chest increased. It disappeared completely a minute later and I landed on the cot with a thud. "Why don't we get rid of that chain, shall we? Make it a fair fight."

Derek snapped his fingers, cracking the chain around my foot. With a single kick of the leg, it broke, the pieces covered the ground. I slowly got up from the cot, watching Derek warily. He was never one for a fair fight, not that this was really fair.

"If you want fair, why don't you take this off me then?" I asked, gesturing at the power-restrainer on my wrist. Derek chuckled.

"No thanks." He replied, before sending me flying into another wall. I grimaced at the sudden impact, craning my head as I tried in vain to escape. "I've been wanting to do this for a long time."

"Still pissed about the whole trying-to-kill-you thing?" I guessed. Derek raised an eyebrow and my attitude got me thrown harshly to the ground. I gasped in pain at the impact, almost certain that I'd cracked a rib or two. Before I could recover, or even roll over to elevate the pain, Derek was next to me, sending kick after kick into my ribcage.

Unable to do anything else, I curled up, trying to block the revenge-fuelled blows. It didn't do much except anger Derek more. Just as I thought the pain was going to make me black out, I was lifted off the ground by a telekinetic hand around my throat. I clutched at my throat out of instinct, knowing it wouldn't do anything, but still trying to stop the invisible fingers from cutting off my oxygen.

"You imbeciles ruined everything for me." Derek growled, tightening his fist. I gasped and spluttered for air, my lungs empty. "I was going to my father's first soldier, his favourite. We were supposed to rule, then you and your damn friends got in our way!"

As much as I wanted to give him some smart-ass response, or spit in his face, I couldn't. Black dots swam across my already blurry vision and I could feel my attempts to save myself growing weaker. Suddenly, there was a light in the corner of my vision, presumably coming from the door at the top of the cell. Someone shouted something, and then everything went black.

**Xxx**

When I woke up sometime later, I was back in the cot, the chain around my ankle had been replaced, and Derek was nowhere to be seen. I would have almost thought that the ordeal was nothing more than a bad dream if it weren't for the aching pain in my ribs and the pounding in my head. "Ow…" I groaned, pushing myself up. I blinked a few times, clearing my slightly fuzzy vision, and noticed that I wasn't alone in the cell. "On guard duty again?"

S-1 didn't answer me and remained sitting in the middle of the stairs, staring straight ahead. "Hey! I was talking to you!" I snapped. Once again, she refused to acknowledge me. "Oh, I didn't take you for the strong silent type."

Finally, she turned to face me. Immediately, my eyes went to a layer of bruises covering the right side of her face and neck. "Eat." Her voice was rough, but she paid it no mind. She gestured at a paper plate on the ground near me. On it was a sandwich, peanut butter by the looks of it. "Mr. Maybank said to make sure you eat."

"He hurt you?" I asked, nodding at her face. She ducked her head slightly, but ignored my question. Watching her carefully in case this was some sort of trick, I snatched the sandwich off the ground. "Okay, better question. What's your name?"

"S-1."

"No, your real name." I took a bite of the sandwich. Stale bread, but not the worst thing I'd ever eaten.

"My name is S-1." She insisted, not facing me.

"That's not a name." I snapped. "It's more like…a soldier number."

"My soldier number is my name."

"That's stupid and inhumane." I muttered. If she heard me, she didn't act like it. "How many soldiers are there?"

"A lot." Well, that wasn't vague at all. I gulped down a bite of the food and looked at her for a moment. The girl was fairly pretty, despite the injuries, and just looking at her, you would never think she could be a killer.

"Alright. Two more questions, then I'll shut up. But you have to answer them, deal?" I asked. She glanced at me.

"What are your questions?" She inquired.

"Why are you helping him and how did you get your powers?" I demanded.

"Mr. Maybank gave us our powers." She said quietly. "He based them off scans and tests that they'd done on people from a place called the Facility."

"You've got to be kidding me. You have our powers?" I demanded. That was just so wrong, it wasn't even funny. But S-1 nodded.

"Well, more like we have copies of your powers. Everyone has a different set or combination, and our strengths vary." She replied. "Mr. Maybank thought it would be easier to kill all of you if we had abilities identical to yours."

Well, it certainly would be a challenge to beat them. "But…the teleportation. Where'd you get that?"

It was her turn to be confused. "The geo-leaping, you mean? I assumed that one of you had the ability."

"Not that I know of." I muttered. She frowned.

"Maybe you just haven't discovered the ability yet." She suggested calmly. I hoped she was right, because if I had teleportation or geo-leaping or whatever it was called, I could get myself out of this stupid cell and back to my friends. I needed to warn them of what was coming.

"And why do you help him? Why not use your powers for good, or not use them at all? You have better options." I insisted. Maybe if I could get this girl to change sides, I could get her to help me escape.

"Because I was born to fight." She stated. "Mr. Maybank created us and gave us these powers so that we could fight and kill, and if our time comes, die for his reign."

"You realize how messed up that is, don't you?" I asked, looking at her. She raised her head.

"Is it not better to be on the winning side than the losing side?" She countered. I shook my head.

"They're not going to lose." At least, I hoped not.


	8. Orders

**S-1's POV**

"S-1!" I started at the sound of my soldier number, eyes flying wide open. I'd been on guard duty for almost twenty four hours now, without a chance to sleep and with no one coming to relieve me of my position, so I was exhausted. Thankfully, it appeared that I'd only dozed off for a few minutes, and to my luck, the psychic was still resting on his cot, trying to sleep away the pain from his injuries. "S-1!"

"Yes sir?" I stood up quickly, wanting to avoid angering Mr. Maybank again. He stepped down the stairs, looking at Rhyder's still form.

"Has he regained consciousness yet?" He questioned. I nodded.

"Briefly, sir. He ate the food," I gestured at the paper plate he'd crumbled up and thrown at the wall, "and fell back asleep."

He'd also drawn me into a conversation, but I neglected to mention that. For some stupid reason, despite the fact that I'd been given clear instructions not to talk to the boy, I'd answered his questions. A stupid, rookie mistake, one that I shouldn't have made. But there was just something about him…he was too open and friendly, far more than anyone here. But I wouldn't let myself fall into the trap again.

"Good. S-4 here will take your place as guard temporarily." Mr. Maybank gestured at a tall, muscular man with short dark blonde hair. I nodded at him, recognizing him from our earlier mission to retrieve the psychic. He'd been the one to kill the strong one, under my orders.

I felt a pang of guilt wash over me, even though I knew I shouldn't care. He was just one boy who got in our way. I had given him the chance to run, hadn't I? I hadn't wanted to kill him, or anyone, but Mr. Maybank had given clear orders: no complications. And he had been a complication.

"Follow me." Mr. Maybank ordered. I followed him up the stairs, into the main area of the warehouse we had been sharing. Our cots and tables were pushed off to the side, my fellow super-powered soldiers standing at attention in front of the stage. Mr. Maybank had me stand on the stage behind him, right next to Derek. The boy smirked at me as I stood next to him, clearly remembering our little argument from earlier.

**FLASHBACK**

" _Did you really have to beat him unconscious?" I demanded, not looking up as I taped up Rhyder's ribs. If the psychic died because of injures that Derek gave him, Maybank would kill me, so it was my job to make sure he was properly taken care of. As in food and medical care. As much as it annoyed me (it was hard to bandage an unconscious idiot up without waking him) it was my duty._

" _I don't see what the big deal is. Let him suffer. Serves him right." Derek sneered. I sent him a glare._

" _You know I can't do that." I growled, lowering the unconscious boy back onto the cot. He winced slowly in his sleep before his face went lax again._

" _You're too soft." Derek accused. I stood up, glaring at him._

" _Excuse me?" I demanded, daring him to repeat himself._

" _You're soft. You're feeling guilty for the Davenport boy's death and you don't like seeing him hurt. It's all over your face, sweetheart."He sneered. I tossed the rest of the bandages into the first aid kit and stared Derek down._

" _Yeah, I don't like being forced to kill someone unnecessarily. We're not all psychopaths like you."I said coolly, keeping my temper. Derek always had a way of getting under my skin, and he did it on purpose. Maybe he was mad that I was the one chosen to retrieve Rhyder and not him, maybe he just didn't like me. I didn't really care._

_I went to walk back up the stairs to put away the first aid kit and to grab some food for the psychic when Derek's voice stopped me. "Well, maybe I should tell my father. If you're not dedicated to our cause-"_

" _I am completely dedicated." I assured him, turning to face him. He raised an eyebrow._

" _Are you? Because if I told my father-" I cut him off._

" _I'm as dedicated to this cause as you." I told him. "And I will kill anyone I have to in order to prove that."_

**FLASHBACK END**

If Mr. Maybank thought for even a brief second that I wasn't dedicated, being hit or kicked would be the least of my worries. It wouldn't be the first time he'd taken his anger out on a soldier and the unfortunate souls that had been accused by Derek of being 'disloyal' or 'disobedient' were no longer with us. I didn't want to end up like them, too beaten and bruised that one could hardly recognize their bodies.

So for now, I would play nice with Derek and act coldly to Rhyder. After all, that was my job anyway. And I had to be good at my job, or else.

"Soldiers!" Mr. Maybank announced. "It's time. You've all grown strong enough and our army is large enough to accomplish our task. New York is one of the largest and most populated cities in the world – if we take it, we'll have thousands of hostages to use against the government. The world will be ours."

Ours. That's what he said, as if we'd be ruling alongside him. Once, I'd have believed him, but now…No! Of course we'd rule together. We were the only reason he was accomplishing this, why wouldn't he share the power with us? I just had to keep believing that.

"We will march on the city within the hour…" I stopped listening to him at that point. Not because I was bored, but because I could see the door to the basement dungeon slowly open. Rhyder was only slightly visible behind it, but how could he even get that far? What happened to S-4? I watched, too shocked to speak up, as he slowly opened the door, sneaking out of the room.

By time the surprise wore off enough for me to speak, I wasn't the only one who'd noticed him. "Hey! The prisoner's escaping!" One of my fellow soldiers shouted, drawing attention to him.

I saw him mouth the words "oh shit" before making a break for the door. Derek took after him, practically flying from the stage in his effort to get in front of the others. Rhyder was overtaken the second he touched the door, at least a dozen soldiers were on top of him, limbs flying everywhere.

"That's enough!" Mr. Maybank ordered as he slowly walked towards them. I followed behind, fighting the instinct to run ahead and see how bad it was. The soldiers did as they were told, even Derek. Though the boy couldn't resist kicking Rhyder in the ribs a couple of more times before getting up.

The guy looked like crap. Blood was flowing freely from his nose. There was a large gash across his forehead, bleeding heavily. And by the looks of his side, he'd broken at least two of the already severely bruised ribs. His eyes were open halfway though, and judging by the burning anger and pain in the brown orbs, he wasn't losing consciousness soon.

"Did you really think you could escape?" Mr. Maybank sneered.

"Go…to h-hell." Rhyder coughed weakly, attempting to push himself up. No one even bothered trying to stop him and I wasn't surprised when he fell onto his back with a pained groan.

"Where's the guard? S-4, find him!" He ordered. He looked at two of the soldiers. "And bring this piece of filth back to his cell."

"Yes sir." They replied before roughly dragging Rhyder to his feet. He didn't resist, instead going limp in their arms. I watched as they dragged him down to the cell.

"You saw him getting out, didn't you?" Derek whispered in my ear.

"N-no." I lied, inwardly cursing myself. I should have spoken up the second I saw him. I knew that. So why didn't I? Was Derek right? Did I really have a soft spot? Not for the boy, surely. I mean, he was the enemy. Sure he wasn't as much of an ass as Derek had described, but it was still my job to take him down.

I didn't have much time to ponder this before the soldiers were back, this time supporting S-4. Judging by the blood coating the back of his neck and the glazed look in his eyes, Rhyder had managed to get him close enough for the psychic to throw him against the wall. S-4 definitely had a major concussion to say the least.

"You let him get away." Mr. Maybank was never the one to be sympathetic towards the injured. "What is wrong with you?"

"Sorry sir…" S-4 slurred slightly as he tried to blink away the fog that seemed to cover his eyes. "Won't happen again…"

"You're right. It won't." Mr. Maybank agreed. "I have no use for soldiers who can't even keep a prisoner in their cell for ten minutes."

The soldiers holding S-4 up dropped him at those words, backing up with the rest of us. We knew what those words meant, even before Mr. Maybank pulled out his gun.

BANG!

I winced as S-4's body slumped, blood pooling beneath his still form. His eyes were facing the sky, as blank as the bionic boy's had been after S-4 slit his throat. The other soldiers did their best to hide their reactions, tried to stay emotionless, but I could see I wasn't the only one struggling. That had been the protocol since day one. You screw up, you die. Simple as that.

"Get rid of the body." Mr. Maybank ordered. The two soldiers nodded, rushing to get rid of our former brother in arms. Our leader turned towards us.

"Everyone, get in the vehicles now. We leave in ten minutes."

"Yes sir." Was choroused throughout the room, no one wanting to piss him off anymore than he already was. I turned to follow, but Mr. Maybank grabbed me by the shoulder.

"Not you. Not yet." He stopped me. I gulped nervously, turning slowly in the spot. Every instinct told me to run, but I forced my legs to remain steady.

"Yes sir?" I asked hesitantly, eying the gun. He let out an annoyed sigh.

"I need info on the brats he calls friends." 'He' was obviously Rhyder. "I can still take New York without it, but his friends will cause problems."

"Sir?" I asked, confused as to what my orders were.

"Our ETA is in one hour. You have until then to get the information from him and dispose of the body. If you don't…" He pocketed his weapon. "You'll be joining S-4. Am I understood?"

I nodded. "Yes sir."

"Good." He pushed me towards the door to Rhyder's cell. "Don't let me down."


	9. Nearing the End

**S-1's POV**

I stepped into the cell hesitantly, glancing back at the door. I waited near the top until I could no longer hear the trucks as they drove away. It would be much easier to do this if I didn't have to worry about Derek breathing down my neck.

Taking a deep breath, I strode down the stairs. Rhyder was lying on the cot, one arm lying on top of his stomach, the other on top of his forehead. I almost felt guilty for what happened to him. I mean, he was a pretty decent guy, even for the enemy. If he hadn't tried to escape, he wouldn't have gotten hurt…maybe. Mr. Maybank would have still gotten rid of Rhyder when he done with him. That I didn't doubt. Whether it would be a quick death or a slow one, I had no idea.

I looked over him, a pit growing in my stomach. I needed this information from him if I was going to live, but I didn't think he was going to tell me. And why should he? I mean, they were his friends and he was completely loyal to them. I'd already asked before, small questions, and he'd refused to talk about them aside from informing me that they would kick my boss' ass and that I should get out of here before they show up.

"Rhyder." I called, standing over him. He raised the hand over his face for a second, then let it drop onto his eyes, a small smirk appearing on his face.

"You here to patch me up, princess?" He joked weakly. I took a deep breath.

"I need to know about your friends." I told him. He looked at me, then slowly pushed himself to a sitting position. He leaned back against the wall for support, then raised an eyebrow at me.

"And I want to know about yours. What was that up there? Your army?" He countered. I nodded.

"Yes. And they're marching on New York as we speak." I replied. His eyes widened and he tried to stand.

"Gotta stop 'em…" He groaned before falling back onto the cot. "Ow…"

"Their leader…Mr. Maybank thinks it's either the smart one, or the fiery one." I began, pacing slowly. "Which one is it? And what's their weakness? They've got to have one."

"I'm not telling you anything about Chase or Vivyanna." Rhyder shook his head. "But they're not going to let Maybank win."

"What about the inventor, Davenport? What about him? What's he got up his sleeve?" I demanded, getting a little agitated. Rhyder shook his head.

"I'm not going to betray my friends." He retorted.

"The speeders. Tell me about them!" I nearly shouted.

"S-1." Rhyder stopped me. "I'm not telling you anything."

"You have to." I growled, staring at him. "If I don't give Mr. Maybank something…"

"He'll kill you?" Rhyder guessed. He nodded when I didn't answer. "Just like that other one. S-5."

"S-4." I corrected. He nodded.

"He was your friend?" He asked gently. I nodded, clenching my teeth. "So you're working for a man who killed your friend and is going to kill you if you screw up? For God's sake, the man won't even let you have a real name."

"It's not…you don't understand!" I snapped, glaring at him. He looked at me.

"Look, you're scared. I get it. If you fail him, you're dead." He stated.

"Then help me." I insisted.

"You're on the wrong side, S-1. The bad side. Maybank's going to lose." Rhyder pushed himself to the edge of the bed. "If you join us…if you help me escape and warn my friends, I promise that you'll be on the winning one."

"Even if I was crazy enough to consider that, if you guys lose, and you will, Mr. Maybank will kill me, slowly and painfully." I told him.

"No." Rhyder grabbed my hand. I flinched at his touch, but he either didn't care, or didn't notice. "No, S-1, we won't lose. And we won't let Maybank hurt you."

"I…I can't." I shook my head, trying to pull away, but he refused to let go.

"Hey, we take care of our friends. And if you help us, you will be one of our friends."

"I'm sorry." I shook my head. "But …"

"S-1." Rhyder looked at me. "Trust me."

I hesitated. If things went south, I was surely dead. Mr. Maybank would not be kind to traitors. If I said yes, I was pretty much signing my death certificate. But…Rhyder was right. What Mr. Maybank was doing wasn't right. And honestly, I'd rather not live in a world that has him as dictator.

"You promise you won't let him kill me?" I asked. Rhyder nodded.

"I'd rather die." His tone was sure. I sighed. Now or never, right?

"Alright. Okay, I'll help you."

**Marcus' POV**

"Are you okay?" I glanced at Bree worriedly for about the tenth time that hour. She was sitting on the couch next to me, constantly fiddling with her charm bracelet.

"Adam gave me this for my seventeenth birthday." She murmured absently. "He spent all his money on it too."

"Bree…" I wasn't really sure what to say. I could see tears forming in her eyes once again. I didn't want her to start crying again, but if she needed to let it out…well, I was going to be here.

"I just…I can't believe he's gone." She sniffled loudly. "And just after he promised that he'd make sure nothing happened to us."

"They won't get away with this, Bree." I promised her. "Adam's death won't go unpunished."

She nodded. "Yeah. Just…revenge. It's not what he would have wanted, right? Neither would Rhyder, for that matter."

I shook my head, knowing she was right. Neither of them would have appreciate the effort of getting revenge. They were just too forgiving, the both of them, and too nice for their own good. "Don't think of it like revenge. Think of it as stopping those monsters from hurting anyone else."

"You're right." Bree rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands and let out a shaky breath. "Stop the bad guy, save the day. That's what we're doing."

"Well we can't exactly stop the bad guy if we don't know who it is, right?" We turned our heads to see Chase and Vivyanna walking back from the roof, the former looking as if he'd calmed down slightly. I didn't blame him for being mad – his older brother had just been murdered, it seemed like a reasonable response – but we needed him to focus. "So, any leads?"

"Well, we're still waiting for Mr. Davenport to get back with the security footage. Leo went with him." Bree explained. We'd offered to go, but Mr. Davenport had wanted us to stay together, since those who'd bee at the Facility were likely the biggest targets. Leo and Davenport, having no powers, were the least likely to draw the enemy's attention.

"Right." Chase nodded, leaning against the kitchen counter. Vivyanna tried to hand him a glass of water, which he promptly ignored. So maybe he wasn't completely calmed down yet.

"You gonna be alright, man?" I asked calmly. Chase nodded.

"I will be as soon as we catch these murders." He replied. I nodded, then glanced at Vivyanna, giving her a pointed look, silently asking if she thought he was alright to deal with this. If he was too messed up about this – and again, it would be hard to blame him – we'd need to figure something out.

Vivyanna merely shrugged, but gave me a reassuring smile. Whatever happened, she would be able to handle it.

"So…" Alex was clearly bothered by the silence in the room. "Any ideas of where to start? I mean, we've only been in New York for a couple of months now – who could Adam and Rhyder have pissed off so much that they'd get murdered for it?"

"Maybank, maybe." Vivyanna offered. Roxanna frowned.

"Agent Maybank?" She repeated, as if we all didn't know who she was talking about. Chase nodded.

"My money's on him. I mean, who else would want to kill them?" He asked. Vivyanna nodded.

"The man is sadistic enough to come after us." She agreed. Roxanna nodded.

"True, but he doesn't have the resources, does he?" She questioned. "I mean, he's gotta be broke, and he's powerless."

"Who do you think, then?" Chase shot back. She shrugged.

"Motive-wise, I've got not idea. But ability-wise…we've all heard the rumours. A flying boy in Kansas. There's a guy in Canada who can control electricity…there are more and more people with powers being born every day. It could be one of them." She pointed out.

"But we've never met anyone else with powers. Why would they want to kill Adam or Rhyder?" Alex asked. Roxanna shrugged.

"Davenport's pretty big in the business world…maybe one of his competitors? For all we know, they were just trying to kidnap Adam for a ransom and things went south." She suggested. Just then, the door flew open. Leo burst in, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Leo?" Chase stood up, concerned. The boy was breathing heavily, eyes wide. He didn't look hurt or anything, but was acting as if he just ran a marathon. "Leo, what's wrong?"

"You…need to…see this!" Leo motioned for us to follow him to the roof. Exchanging confused looks, we headed up those stairs. We were faced with a terrifying sight.

There were three main highways onto Manhattan Island, and we could always seen one of them from the roof. From here, we could tell that the traffic had completely stopped, the tunnel covering the road broken. Cars were honking, but it didn't seem to matter as several small blurs (it was hard to see from here, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were people) pushed past the crowd. Fires broke out around them and chilling ice stalagmites grew around the road, blocking anyone from escaping.

"Rhyder's dream…" Vivyanna's voice was a hushed whisper, awe and horror masking her face. "The super-powered army…they're here…"


	10. A Fight to Remember

**Marcus' POV**

"What in the world…?" Alex wondered aloud, staring at the sight with wide, frightened eyes. He looked up at Vivyanna. "The army from Rhyder's dream? Are you sure?"

"What else could it be?" She replied, her voice hushed with horror and awe. I could sense the dread and tension rising in the room, the seriousness of the situation hitting everyone at once. We'd already lost Adam and Rhyder, now this? Couldn't we catch a damn break?

"We need to get down there. Come on." Chase pulled on Vivyanna's arm, intending on leading the group towards the street. The pyrokinetic dug her heels into the ground though, refusing to move.

"You want us to go down there and what? Fight?" She demanded. Chase nodded.

"Well yes. People are getting hurt down there, Vivyanna. We have to help." He insisted. Vivyanna shook her head, pulling away from him.

"Are you crazy?" She demanded. "I'm not going down there."

"Why the hell not?" Bree demanded. Vivyanna fixed her with a cold look.

"Well, I'm not exactly eager to die, for one!" She retorted. "In case you've forgotten, Rhyder predicted that we'd die fighting those guys."

I had to admit, she had a point. Rhyder had seen this coming, and he had seen that it would end bloody. But still… "If we don't help, other people are going to die. What makes our lives more important than theirs?"

"What makes their lives more important than ours?" Vivyanna retorted, looking at him. Before he could respond, she hastened to finish her statement. "Look, you were raised to be heroes, I get that. I do. And in the end, I'll probably do whatever you need me to, but I just want you to actually think about this for a second. If we walk down there, if we walk into that fight, I promise you that at least some of us won't be walking out."

She paused for a moment. "Do you really want to lose someone else?"

That made everyone stop. How many sacrifices were we really willing to make before we couldn't make any more. The thought of losing Bree, of losing the sisters, of losing anyone in fact, cut into my heart, and I knew I wasn't the only one.

"We…look." Chase looked at all of us. "I'm not asking you to die. I'm not asking you to fight. But I know this is the right thing to do, and I'm going to do it. You don't have to help if you don't want to."

"It's not that. I just can't bear the thought of losing anyone else." Vivyanna murmured.

"C'mon baby sister." Roxanna smirked at her. "It'll be fine."

"Who's in?" Chase asked. Bree nodded.

"For Adam." She stated.

"And Rhyder." Roxanna agreed.

"Let's just kick some ass already." Leo decided. I chuckled.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." I agreed with him. Only the end of the world could get us to work together.

"Alright." Alex nodded. Chase looked at Vivyanna and she sighed.

"This is completely suicidal." She muttered. "But I'm in."

"Good." Chase smiled at her gratefully. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"But if I get killed, I'm coming back to haunt your ass." She warned, grabbing one of the comm sets off the kitchen counter.

"Looking forward to it." Chase muttered, following her out.

**Chase's POV**

By the time we got down there, the soldiers (for they were definitely trained soldiers, despite their seemingly young age) were already prowling the streets and terrorizing the civilians. Flames burst out from nearby buildings as icy stalagmites the size of minivans broke through the asphalt roads.

"Hey, do you guys know what this is about?" Bree glanced back at the only pyrokinetic and cryokinetic around. Both girls shrugged, eying the disasters wearily.

"Oh my god!" Alex grabbed my hand, pointing across the street. We watched in horror as two soldiers lifted up a massive truck with their bare hands, to reveal two children underneath.

"Hey!" Alex sped at them, pulling the kids out of the way. He disappeared in a blur, reappearing who-knows-where.

"Quicky?" Vivyanna called, activating her comm set.

" _I'm here. Just getting these two out of the way before those guys kill them."_  His voice was strained, and I assumed that he was ran while speaking to us.

"Right, so these guys have powers." We should have guessed that by the fire and ice spikes. "Alright, that complicates things."

"But it doesn't make this impossible." Marcus added. I nodded, then looked at my sister.

"You and Quicky use your speed to get the civilians out of the way. Find as many as you can, and bring them to the easiest to protect buildings. The police station, the hospital, the school. Anywhere you can think of." I ordered, getting back into the role of mission leader.

"Right." Bree nodded before speeding off in a blur. I looked at Vivyanna.

"Vivy, do you think you can control those fires?" I asked, gesturing at nearest flaming building. She gave me a look.

"One, it's Vivyanna, and two, duh!" She replied before jogging off towards the fire. As she walked, I could see the flames curling around her, shrinking in size and being drawn towards the pyrokinetic.

"Get any civilians you can to safety!" I called after her. She didn't acknowledge me, but assuming she'd heard me, I turned back to Marcus and Leo. "Alright Leo, I need you to find Mr. Davenport. We need info on these guys, especially on their powers and numbers, and he's always been the best at getting information on missions."

"On it." Leo nodded. He quickly ran off, but not before adding, "Be careful."

"You too!" I called after him, a pit growing in my stomach. Vivyanna's words kept coming back to me. She had been right; the chances of us all making it out of this in one piece were virtually non-existent, but I hated the thought of losing someone else. But here I was, sending the only one of us without powers, across the city on a hope that Mr. Davenport could get us any information on the enemy.

"Hey!" Marcus' voice dragged me out of my thoughts. I looked at him. "Leo's a tough kid; he can handle himself."

"Yeah, right." I nodded. I had to stop letting my mind go to the worst possible situation. "We've got bad guys to fight and asses to kick."

"Now that's what I like to hear." Marcus chuckled. "I'm guessing we're going to be taking out any and all soldiers we see?"

"Exactly." I nodded. Marcus almost smirked.

"Let's do this." He said before running off towards the nearest solider.

**Xxx**

As it turned out, super strength, pyrokinesis, and cryokinesis weren't the only powers the soldiers had. I found this out the hard way when one of them, an ugly brute, threw me into a brick wall using molecular kinesis.

"Ow…" I pushed myself, shaking my head slightly to clear it. The soldier appeared above me, throwing a kick into my side. I rolled with it, and the second I was on my back and facing him, I raised my hands, throwing him far into the air. I didn't wait to see where he landed, or if he got up, but immediately focused on my second opponent. Even though this one was a girl, she'd clearly been given been given super strength. She threw one punch at my ribcage just as I threw up my shield, but I was a little off on my timing. I wasn't able to stop it completely, but I did manage to soften the blow enough for me to remain standing.

Taking advantage of her surprise (I guess she hadn't expected me to block it) I hit her in the stomach with a plasma ball.

"Ah!" A sudden cry of pain came from behind me. I spun around in time to see a soldier fall to the ground, clutching his chest. Marcus was only a few feet away, eyes still glowing green from the use of his heat vision.

"Thanks." I nodded at him gratefully. He nodded, wiping some sweat off his brow.

"No problem." He replied as I looked around. The rest of the street was mostly clear, with the exception of a few civilians with their heads poked out the window. Most of them looked terrified out of their minds, and I didn't blame them. The sight of super-powered humans, good or bad, was enough to at least scare people a bit.

It had been almost an hour since we'd come out here, and things still weren't calming down. I didn't know who was leading this assault, but whomever it was seemed to have an endless supply of soldiers working for them. I was exhausted, every inch of my body sore and aching.

"Dude," Marcus glanced at me. He looked as exhausted as I felt. "We have to figure out a different plan. We can't keep this up forever."

"I know." I agreed just as my comm set came to life.

" _Guys?"_  Alex, thank God. He'd been one of my biggest concerns, considering how young he was.

"Quicky, yeah. I'm here. You alright?" I demanded. I heard him let out a shaky breath.

" _Running a little empty of fuel and energy. I guess skipping breakfast this morning wasn't such a good idea."_  He admitted sheepishly.  _"Listen, I've cleared civilians from about ten streets now, but you need to know something. Bree and I aren't the only speeders out here."_

" _Nor are you and Marcus the only ones with molecular kinesis."_ Bree added. I nodded, even though she couldn't see me.

" _Yeah, I know about the molecular kinesis. Thanks for the tip about speeders."_  Like we needed to add super speeders to the mix.  _"Where are you guys now?"_

" _Fifth Avenue."_  Alex replied.

" _I'm on the roof of the hospital on 3_ _rd_ _. Figured I'd get a better view."_  Bree replied.  _"Chase…there are at least fifteen soldiers on this street alone."_

" _Yeah, that's nothing compared to ten cryokinetics."_  Roxanna interjected, joining our little conversation. Her voice was strained, but she didn't sound to be in too much pain.  _"Managed to deal with them, but they threw me around a bit first. I'm fine, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."_

"Vivyanna?" I asked, concerned. Usually, she was the first to speak up, but so far I'd heard nothing from her. There was a moment of silence. "Vivyanna!"

" _Give me…a sec…would ya?"_  Her voice was low, gasping. I could hear violent coughs coming from her end of the line.

"Vivy, you okay? What's wrong?" I demanded.

" _Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."_  My concern grew when she didn't respond to the nickname.  _"But as it turns out…while I am flame-proof, I am not smoke-proof."_

" _You're sure you're okay?"_  Roxanna questioned.

" _I'm fine, Roxy. Just needed some air."_  The pyrokinetic replied, her voice raspy.  _"But let me tell you, fighting against these guys sucks when they have the same powers as you."_

" _No kidding."_  Roxy agreed.  _"Chase, tell me you have a different plan than us just doing this until we all collapse?"_

"I'm working on it." I insisted. "Leo, now would be a great time for that information I asked for."

" _I don't have much."_  Leo warned, joining the conversation.

"Anything will do." I assured him. The others were right; this wasn't working. Not only were we vastly outnumbered, but we no longer had the advantage of superpowers since they had some too.

" _Well, we don't know who's leading the attack or why. Nor do we know much about their powers. Certainly not anything that you haven't already observed."_  Leo began.  _"But we do know that there's approximately 200 hundred of them."_

"Shit." I swore. Two hundred? There was no way we could handle all that, not on our own.

" _Yeah."_  Leo sounded regretful.  _"The good news is, we think we know where their base is."_

"Tell me." I ordered.

"Alright. You know that tunnel we saw from the roof? The one where all the soldiers were coming from?" Damn, I'd only thought that it was the way they entered the city. It'd never occurred to me that they may have made a base.

"You're sure that their base of operations?" Marcus demanded.

" _Not entirely, but it seems to be where the wounded are heading. Even if it's not, we'll be able to round up a bunch of them at once."_  Leo offered.

"Good work Leo." I nodded, though he couldn't see it. "What are the cops doing?"

" _They're mainly focused on saving people. Their few attempts to fight the enemy haven't worked out well."_  My step-brother replied.  _"They're up against forces they've never had to deal with, guys. They don't know how to fight them."_

"Good thing we do." I nodded. "Alright, listen up. Everyone clear out as many civilians, then head straight to the police station."

" _But if we head to their base now, we can take out their leader!"_ Vivyanna argued.  _"We could finish this now, without anyone dying."_

Anyone else, I corrected her silently. "Civilians are our main concern, Vivyanna." I ordered. I heard her sigh, but she didn't complain. "And besides, it would be suicide to go in there alone. We do in together or not at all. Agreed?"

" _Fine."_  Multiple voices agreed, seeing the reason behind my decision.

"Alright. We'll see you all soon." I told them, ending the conversation. I looked at Marcus. "Let's go."

We headed towards the police station, taking care of a few soldiers and helping civilians into zones that were considered 'safe'. Safe being a loose term. I really meant that no one was on that street, so I assumed that they weren't about to die in the next three seconds.

We were helping said civilians out of the way when all of a sudden, there was a massive explosion coming from the center of the city. Even from here, I could see flames high in the sky, smoke floating upwards as debris rained down. The whole world seemed to shake with the impact.

"What was that?" I demanded, eyes wide. Marcus looked at me, then activated his comm set. I followed his example.

"Everyone, check in now!" He ordered.

"I'm alright."

"Did you guys see that?"

"Is anyone hurt?"

"Oh my god."

Four different voices, all shocked and stunned, checked in. That accounted for six of us…out of seven.


	11. Reunion

**Chase's POV**

"I'm alright." That was Bree, sounding a little rattled, but unhurt.

"Did you guys see that?" Alex demanded.

"Is anyone hurt?" Roxanna questioned, her tone slightly panicky.

"Oh my God…" Vivyanna's voice was hushed with horror.

Four different voices, all shocked and stunned, checked in. That accounted for six of us…out of seven.

"Leo?" I demanded pleadingly. Please, please, please let me not have lost another brother. "Leo, answer me!"

"Chase…that explosion…" Vivyanna hesitantly said. "I think…Chase, it was the police station."

"No." I shook my head, not wanting to believe it. "No, it can't be."

"I'm not very far. I can see the…well, the remains. It's still burning." She informed me. "Chase, it's bad. Really bad."

No, this couldn't be happening. I mean, Leo was at the police station with Mr. Davenport. Could they have really blown up the police station? Could my step-brother and my father really be…

"Vivyanna, get to them. NOW!" I didn't even realize that I was speaking until I shouted that final word. I barely heard Vivyanna's response as I started running in the direction of the police station. It wasn't long before I could see smoke. I just prayed that I hadn't lost another member of my family.

**Vivyanna's POV**

"Leo? Kid!" I shouted, pushing my way into the destroyed police station.

What was once a two story government building was now a one story wreck. One wall was completely demolished, two others partially gone, and one miraculously still standing. The roof of the building completely gone. Fragments of the ceiling/second floor hung loosely off the remaining walls, looking as if they were going to fall any second. The first floor was pretty much demolished, the remains of desks and broken bodies. You'd figure that the bodies, bloodied and burnt, would be the worst part. But it was actually the shadow-like figures painted on the walls. I knew from history class (and maybe watching too many movies) that they were the only remains of those who'd been completely obliterated by the explosion. The only signs of their death.

"Leo…Davenport!" I coughed lightly, the thick smoke in the air starting to get to me. Suddenly, I stumbled over a body. A familiar body.

"Oh no…" I whispered, recognizing Donald Davenport even with the ash and soot covering his face. "Sir?" Even before I knelt down to check his pulse, I knew he was gone. I let out a sigh, not feeling even the slightest twitch beneath my fingers.

I coughed again, my lungs starting to ache a little. Man, I hated smoke. Looking around, I realized that I couldn't see Leo's body. Just some broken columns, mostly disintegrated desks, and bodies that could not have belonged to a sixteen year old boy. I was just starting to think that he'd been one of the shadows when I heard a soft groan coming from my left.

"L-Leo?" I got to my feet, stumbling towards the source of the sound.

"H-Help!" Came the weak response. "Vivy-anna, help…"

"Leo…" I fell to my knees next to the boy. He was alive (thank God) but clearly injured. He was lying on his back, one leg twisted in the wrong direction. A broken leg, I could deal with. But the fact that his left arm was pinned under a large column made things difficult. "Are…" I coughed roughly, "…you okay?"

"What d-do you th-think?" Well, if he still had his sense of humour, then he probably wasn't on his death bed yet. "My..My arm's pinned un-under…underneath the beam…" He coughed weakly, eyes slightly glassy from the pain.

"Right. Give me a…give me a sec." I stood up, trying to pull the beam up. But I couldn't catch my breath, the thing had to weigh at least two hundred pounds, and my hands kept slipping on what I hoped wasn't Leo's blood.

"Vivy…" Leo whimpered, raising his head for a second before it fell back against the ground. "H-help."

"T-tryin'…" I released the beam, coughing violently into my elbow. I couldn't breathe at this point. I needed fresh air, I needed oxygen period, but if I didn't get Leo out of here ASAP, he'd die. "L-Leo…" I fell to my knees, unable to lift the beam. My head was starting to spin, the lack of oxygen making my vision go blurry.

"Vivyanna!" Distantly, I heard a male voice call my name. I felt someone haul me to my feet and start to drag me away.

"L-Leo…!" I managed to gasp out, trying to fight against whoever was pulling me out of the smoke filled building.

"Relax, we've got him." I was assured just as I was pushed into the fresh air. Whoever was dragging me let go and I fell to my hands and knees, gasping for breath. My eyes closed as I gulped greedily at the clean air, trying hard to expel the smoke from my lungs.

There was a soft thud next to me second later, and another voice joined the first. "He needs medical attention, and fast." This voice was female.

"I know, but I'm pretty sure the hospital's a little overwhelmed." The first voice was back, and as my head cleared, I realized that I knew that voice.

"You're right. Not to mention, Mr. Maybank might target it too, if he thinks you guys might go there." The female replied.

"Vivyanna?" There was suddenly a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, you alright? You hurt?"

I raised my head, eyes widening when I saw the boy's face. "R-Rhyder?"

**Chase's POV**

"Chase, wait up!" I heard Roxanna's voice from behind Marcus and I as we ran, but I didn't slow down. I had to get to the police station, had to make sure my family was alright.

" _If we walk down there, if we walk into that fight, I promise you that at least some of us won't be walking out."_  Vivyanna's words kept echoing around my head. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right. If we'd never had these powers, if no one had ever had any powers, this wouldn't have happened. If the world was freaking normal, if no one in the world had enhanced abilities, or bionics, or powers, none of this would have happened. This whole fight, the Facility, they would never have existed.

"Over there!" Marcus' voice dragged me out of my thoughts. He pointed towards a smoking building, four figures sitting a ways away from it. Two of the figures were on the ground, the other two kneeling next to them with their backs turned to us.

"Guys!" I shouted, running towards them. I recognized Leo's body lying on the ground with a dark haired girl above him, holding his arm with both hands. Vivyanna was beside them, on her hands and knees. At the sound of my voice, her gaze pulled away from the boy in front of her towards me. "Are you alright? Where's…" I broke off, recognizing the boy standing above Vivyanna. "Rhyder?"

He turned to me, smiling slightly. "Hey." He responded. Roxanna, Marcus and I stared at him, confused. We'd thought that Rhyder was dead. We thought he was gone. But here he was.

We only froze for a second before Roxanna was tackling him in a hug and Marcus was skidding to the ground beside Leo. "How…I don't…" I stammered, walking towards Rhyder. He shrugged.

"Long story. I'll tell you later, but now's not the time." He told me. I nodded, then looked at Leo and Vivyanna.

"Are you guys alright?" I demanded. Vivyanna shook her head, gasping slightly, then jerked her head at Leo. I knelt next to him, feeling sick to my stomach. His leg was obviously broken, and his arm looked like it'd been through a meat grinder. There was so much blood, so much torn muscle that it hardly resembled a human arm. "Leo…"

"'m okay…" He mumbled, his voice slurred from exhaustion and pain. Suddenly, there was a large breeze, the sound of footsteps coming from behind us.

"Guys!" "Wait…Rhyder?" Alex and Bree both exclaimed, skidding to a stop.

"Yeah, I'm here. I'm okay." Rhyder told them.

"Leo? Is he okay?" Bree demanded. "And who's she?"

I looked at the girl kneeling in front of Leo, her hands holding a sweater to on Leo's wound. She glanced up at us, not taking the pressure off the furiously bleeding wound. "Doesn't matter."

"She's S-1. She helped me escape." Rhyder explained. The girl didn't comment on that.

"Listen, do you know anyone with medical training?" S-1 didn't bother with formalities, instead getting straight to the point. "Because he needs help, and I don't think hospitals are an option for us."

"For us? We hardly know you." Roxanna pointed out. She was sitting next to Vivyanna, one hand on her sister's back. Though she was no longer wheezing, the pyrokinetic still made no move to get up.

"Hey. She's on our side, I promise." Rhyder stepped in. "I wouldn't be alive right now if it weren't for S-1. She betrayed the army to help us."

I glanced at him, then at S-1. "Why can't we bring him to a hospital?" I asked calmly. Rhyder was going to give us a full explanation later, but right now, my brother was my number one concern.

"Because they might be targeting them." S-1 answered. When we all looked at her, she quickly continued. "Look, getting rid of the police and fire departments was the first part of their strategy, but they know you're a threat too. And if they think you'll got to a hospital because you're hurt, they'll take out the entire building to get rid of you."

"Why are we so important? How do they even know about us?" Bree demanded. She looked at Rhyder. "Why'd they kill my brother?"

"I'm so sorry about Adam. I am." Rhyder looked at us. "But it's not S-1's fault. It's Maybank's."

"He's back?" Vivyanna's voice was raspy, but strong and angry. Good, she was dangerous when angry.

"Yeah. And this is all his doing." Rhyder informed us. I bit back a curse. Of course it would be him. We should have gotten rid of him a long time ago, but we were ignorant and stupid and we believed that he would just leave us alone. I glanced back at Leo, who was quickly paling and wouldn't be able to stay conscious for much longer.

"Uh, Sarah!" I snapped my fingers, remembering how she patched me up back at the Facility. "Yeah, Sarah. She can help."

"When I called her earlier, she said that she was bringing her sister to the school. Apparently, a woman named Terry Perry is setting up a trauma center there. Not many people know about it, so Maybank may not think to target it." Alex offered. I nodded.

"Good, that's good." I agreed. I looked at Bree, knowing that Alex was neither big enough nor strong enough to carry Leo. "Can you bring him? And tell Perry that if she doesn't make sure he's taken care of, she'll have to deal with me?"

Bree almost smirked, recognizing it as something Adam would say if any of us were hurt. She knelt down, pulling our baby brother into her arms, and was gone in the blink of an eye. I looked at S-1.

"Thank you. We really appreciate this." I told her. She nodded.

"Well, I'm pretty sure Mr. Maybank's going to dispose of us even if we win, so I'd rather go down fighting for the good guys than the bad ones." She replied. I stood up, holding my hand out to Vivyanna.

"Are you okay, Vivy?" I asked gently. She nodded, clearing her throat before letting me help her up.

"It's Vivyanna." She corrected, entwining our fingers and squeezing my hand slightly. Her way of telling me that everything was going to be okay. "Chase…your dad…"

"I figured." I stopped her, feeling my throat close up. I held the pain and tears in though, knowing that there would be time to grieve later. He would be pretty disappointed in me if I let my feelings get in the way of completing a mission and saving people. I took a deep breath, ignoring the shakiness in it. "We need a plan, because mine isn't going as well as I thought it would."

Rhyder and S-1 exchanged glances. "I think we can help with that."


	12. The Fire and the Frost

**Vivyanna's POV**

'I can't believe we're actually doing this.' I thought to myself as I quietly walked through the streets, towards the enemy's base. I mean, I was used to stupid reckless ideas. I came up with them all the time. But this was ridiculous. Who in their right mind goes looking for the one guy who could potentially kick their ass? I mean, being overwhelmed by soldiers was one thing – at least then we'd be fighting alongside our friends. But challenging one of our worst enemies to a one on one fight? An enemy that had beaten us before in the past? Who did that kind of stuff?

This was so not going to end well. But if the others had a chance of beating Maybank, they needed to keep the others busy. Even if that meant us fighting off a monster.

**FLASHBACK**

" _I think we can help with that." Rhyder told us, exchanging a glance with his new friend, S-1. "We've got a plan."_

" _Let's hear it." Chase replied. S-1 cleared her throat._

" _Well, the soldiers, their orders are to take out those with the same powers as them. That way, you don't have the advantage of an ability that they can't use, and they have the advantage of numbers." She began._

" _Yeah, we know." I interjected. My voice was still rough from the smoke, but since I couldn't taste bile in the back of my throat anymore, I figured I was doing a little better._

" _Well, the problem with Mr. Maybank's strategy is that very few of us have more than one ability. Only maybe two or three of us do. The rest only have one set of abilities." S-1 continued._

" _And this is good for us how?" Roxy questioned. S-1 almost smirked._

" _Well, they have the same weaknesses as you guys, right? You've had your powers for so much longer than us, you should know what works against you." She pointed out. My eyes widened._

" _We can use our weaknesses against them." I murmured. "That's…well, that's actually pretty smart."_

" _Do you always use the tone of surprise?" S-1 questioned. I was about to retort when Rhyder stepped in._

" _Look, this isn't the time for fighting." He sent me a pointed glare. "Let's use this."_

" _Sarah said that she'll do everything she can for Leo." Bree skidded to a stop next to us. "So what's the plan?"_

" _Chase, you're team leader, or mission leader, or whatever. You're in charge." I looked at the genius. He nodded._

" _Well, Bree's speed's always been faster than my molecular kinesis, and super strength is useless if you can't catch your enemy." He said thoughtfully. Alex nodded._

" _So Bree and I take care of everyone with your, Adam, and Marcus' powers?" He confirmed. Chase nodded._

" _Speed, I don't know what that weakness would be…" He looked at Bree for help. Bree looked stuck for a second, then she snapped her fingers._

" _Remember when Leo accidently zapped me with Mr. Davenport's Freeze Ray?" She questioned. I almost smirked. That had been funny. "Well, it slowed me down."_

" _Well yeah. The Freeze Ray was designed to reach 0 kelvin, or about -460 degrees Fahrenheit. Atoms stop moving at that speed." I replied. Everyone looked at me like I had to heads. "I like chemistry, okay? And temperature changes? They're sorta my thing."_

" _So basically, I freeze the speedsters and they stop cold?" Roxanna asked. "Pun intended."_

" _Yeah, that should work." Chase nodded. "Obviously Vivyanna, you would go after the cryokinetics."_

" _Actually, I think we need her to do something else." Rhyder stopped him._

" _What do you mean?" I questioned suspiciously. Rhyder glanced at S-1, then sighed._

" _Derek. He's back. He's alive." The second he said those words, we all began to argue. After all, hadn't Leo killed Derek? We'd celebrated that, and I doubted the kid would have lied to us._

" _Yeah, I know." Rhyder stopped us. "I guess Leo thought he did. I mean, Marcus, you got crushed under a few hundred pounds of cement just like Derek, and you survived."_

" _And if anyone would be stubborn enough to survive, it would be Derek." Marcus agreed._

" _So you want me to take him out?" I asked, looking at Rhyder for confirmation._

**FLASHBACK OVER**

"This is insane." I muttered to myself before stepping out into the middle of the street and looking around. It was empty and quiet. Too much so for my liking. S-1 had told us that there wouldn't be many soldiers in the base, and likely only super speeders, but since Derek was supposed to be running things from there while Maybank went rampage around the Big Apple, I knew the boy would be listening.

"Hey Derek!" I shouted, igniting fires around my hands. "Derek, I know you're listening! Come out and face me!"

Silence. Well, I expected a little more reaction from that.

"I know you're a coward, Derek. You always were. But I'm sure you don't want to disappoint daddy, do you?" Again, silence. "Oh come on! Come out of the shadows Derek. I know you want this."

"You're right, I do." His response was so sudden, so quiet, that I barely had the time to register that he'd spoke before a fireball the size of a medicine ball hit me from behind. Even though I was fire proof and couldn't burn, the impact of the blow still knocked me on to the ground. I rolled onto my back quickly, narrowly avoiding one of Derek's feet as he tried to kick me in the face. He stared down at me, his face marred with scars from his previous encounter with Leo. Well, even if he didn't kill the bastard, at least Leo took away his pretty face. "Hello Vivyanna. Miss me?"

"Loads." I replied sarcastically before swinging my foot around and taking him down to the ground. I instantly climbed on top of him, punching him in the face. I swung again, but he managed to block it. He threw me off him and leapt to his feet, backing up slightly.

I flew at him, ducking under his waiting fist and pinning his arm behind his back. He let out a satisfyingly pained hiss as I twisted it, almost to the point of breaking it. "Aw, you did miss me." He joked, attempting to pull away from me.

"You're going to die." I hissed in his ear. "You're going to suffer and die for what you did to Adam, to Mr. Davenport, for hurting Rhyder and Leo. I'll make sure of it."

"In your dreams, princess." With a sudden twist and jerk of his body, I found myself on the ground, Derek right above me. I rolled to the side, barely avoiding his blow. I shot a fireball back at him as I rolled, landing in a crouching position just as the ball of flames hit him.

"Damn it…" He hissed, stumbling back a few steps. He rubbed his chest, looking pretty annoyed that there was now a scorched hole in it. Unfortunately, the flesh underneath was completely unharmed and untouched by my fire. He looked at me. "Is that the best you've got?" He questioned.

"Why don't you find out?" I challenged, beckoning him closer. He smirked before rushing at me. I ducked under his arm and elbowed him in the back of his head. It was a strong enough blow, it should have knocked him out, or at least sent him down. I hadn't expected him to have such a thick skull, nor did I expect him to move so fast.

I let out a startled cry as I was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground. Derek landed a rough kick to my back, sending a lightning bolt of pain through my system. I gasped, rolling away slightly as he kicked me again.

I let out a cry, sending a fireball his way, but my aim was off. Before I knew what was happening, I was pinned against the wall, my head rebounding off the brick wall. He slammed my skull against the wall again, pain erupting in the back of my head upon impact. "Ah…" I winced at the pain and he pushed me hard against the wall with one hand, the other ready to punch me again.

"And you really thought you could kill me?" He demanded, slamming his fist into my face. I blinked harshly as he pulled it back, blood slowly trickling down my face from my broken nose. He went to hit me again, then stopped. "Why are you smirking?"

I would have chuckled if it didn't hurt so much. "Because." I smiled. "I said you were going to die, Derek. But I never said I was going to be the one to kill you."

He frowned for a second, confused. Then he let out a sharp, startled gasp as a massive, icy spike protruded from his chest. His eyes flew down to the ice and he stumbled back, his hands flying to his chest.

"H-How…" He coughed weakly, blood staining his lips. "H-"

"Hey there, Derek." Roxanna stepped out from behind the building, her arms crossed as she looked at him. "You miss me?"

"H-How…" He fell to his knees, coughing up more blood. She looked at him, her gaze cold.

"That was for our friends." She told him. "No one gets to take them away from us and live."

Derek glared weakly at us, trying to push himself back up to fight, but didn't have the strength. He fell back onto the ground, the impact pushing the icicle farther into his body. In a matter of seconds, his body had stilled and his eyes, once full of anger and hatred, lost their light.

"Well, that went according to plan, for once." Roxanna commented, glancing at me with a faint smile on her lips. I nearly smiled back, glad that Rhyder and S-1's plan had worked.

**FLASHBACK**

" _So you want me to take him out?" I asked, looking at Rhyder for confirmation. To my surprise, he shook his head._

" _It's true, he's still pissed about what you guys did to him, but as he likely thinks that Leo's dead, you and Chase are his main targets. And we need Chase here." Rhyder continued. I frowned, not understanding._

" _So if you don't want me to fight him, what do want from me?" I demanded. Rhyder looked at me._

" _Oh, you get to fight him alright, but Vivy…" I glared at him, "…Vivyanna, sorry. You're not strong enough to take him out on your own. No one is."_

" _Then what's the plan?" Clearly, Chase wasn't liking it so far._

" _Vivyanna, you're going to distract him." S-1 told her. "Fight him if you have to, just make sure you keep his attention on you. And when the time is right, Roxanna will go into strike."_

**FLASHBACK OVER**

"Yeah, for once." I agreed, wiping a hand across my face. It came away bloody, like I expected, but I didn't think my nose was broken.

"Are you okay?" Roxy asked, looking over me worriedly. "I should have stepped in earlier…"

"It's fine, Roxy. You did good." I assured her. I did a quick inventory of my injuries. A cracked rib or two, but neither seemed completely broken. And I was sure that I had a concussion, but a minor one at most. That could have gone a lot worse. "I'm alright."

"Good." Roxy nodded. I smirked slightly.

"But just so you know, you're being the bait next time." I told her. She laughed at that.

"Right, sure. Okay." She agreed, laughing lightly. I nodded, then looked at the sky. The smoke was combining with the rising sun to create a dusty colour in the sky, the sight almost making me sick.

We needed to end things. I just hoped that the others were doing as well as we were.

**FLASHBACK**

" _Alright, let's do this." I nodded at the others. "Time to go piss off Derek."_

_I started on my way, only for Chase to grab me by the hand. "I need to go." I told him gently, knowing that it wasn't the best time. He'd just lost two of his family members, another barely alive. But as much as I wanted to be here for him, we both knew what our responsibilities were._

" _I know, just…" He broke off, looking at the ground. "I can't lose you too."_

" _And I can't lose you either." I told him. "But earlier…you were right. We need to do this. Because we're not the only ones who've lost someone."_

" _I know." He nodded. "Be careful."_

" _I will." I promised him. Once again, my attempt to walk away was stopped by his voice._

" _Vivyanna." He called me back. I stopped, just out of arms reach. "Listen, I know this isn't the best time, but I…" He sighed. "I l…"_

_I stared at him. "You…what?" I asked, wanting him to finish that sentence. He gave me a soft smile._

" _Come back alive, and I'll tell you." He offered. I laughed lightly and walked back towards him._

" _That is so unfair." I murmured before kissing him._

**FLASHBACK**

The kiss had been sweet and passionate, but didn't last nearly as long as I wanted it to. I just hoped it wasn't our last kiss.


	13. The Last Stand

**Rhyder's POV**

"Chase, duck!" I shouted, leaping over my friend and pushing three soldiers away with my abilities. The boy genius nodded at me, quickly spinning to avoid a hit from one of the other soldiers and taking him down with a plasma ball to the stomach.

"Thanks!" I heard him call before he turned back to the mass of soldiers. We were still outnumbered, but things seemed to be going a little better for us now that we had an actual plan. And as soon as the sisters were done with their part of the plan, their abilities would really make a difference.

I dodged another solider, throwing him back several feet. But another had come up from behind me and tackled me to the ground. Biting back a cry of pain, I tried to shove him off me, but he was too big and I was still injured from my time as Maybank's prisoner.

Luckily, Chase had my back, knocking the solider out and off of me. He held out his hand and I took it gratefully, slowly getting back to my feet. "You alright?" He asked, glancing at me. I nodded, wincing.

"I'll live." I grunted, looking around. The amount of soldiers around us had lessened, but that only meant that they were pre-occupied elsewhere.

"Look, we need to figure something else out." Chase told me, sounding a little breathless. "We can take out as many soldiers as we want, but it's Maybank we really need to get rid of."

"Without a leader, they've got no reason to fight." I agreed absently. I looked around, trying to spy a certain dark haired soldier. "S-1!"

She didn't answer, instead ducking gracefully under the arm of one soldier before grabbing it, pinning it behind his back, and throwing him into the nearest wall. She flipped another over her shoulder, then suddenly disappeared.

She reappeared next to us, one hand on my shoulder for support. "You okay?" I asked, a little worried. She nodded.

"Yeah, just landed wrong when I teleported." She replied. "I take it boy genius has a better plan?"

Chase chuckled. "How do you feel about taking out Maybank?"

She hesitated. "Just the three of us?" She asked uncertainly.

"Hey, it'll be fine." I assured her, and I meant it. He was only human, after all. How hard would it be to take him out?

"Alright." She nodded solemnly. "I guess it's our best bet. Without him, the soldiers would be easier to deal with."

"Agreed." I nodded. "So, anyone know where he is?"

That made Chase stop. "Uh…"

"He'll be at their base camp." S-1 said thoughtfully.

"Do you know where that is?" Chase demanded. She nodded.

"I can show you." She offered me her hand, a small, brave smile of her face. "It's time to end this."

**S-1's POV**

I wasn't all that sure of this plan. Mr. Maybank was smart, really smart. He would be expecting the team to come for him, and he would know that I'd defected from his army by now. He'd kill me on sight, certainly.

So why the hell was I crazy enough to go through with this? Maybe it was Rhyder. He was my friend, my first real friend, and I trusted him. But maybe it was the others too. They were all fighting so hard, putting their lives at risk. They'd already lost some of their own, yet they were willing to fight and, if need be, die for the civilians. Maybe it was their bravery rubbing off on me that made me want to defeat Mr. Maybank.

I led the boys towards the base camp. It was close, by the river, just as Mr. Maybank had told us. The location had been picked purposefully – the river would be a good place to dump the bodies of the enemy, AKA Rhyder and his friends, if we needed to. Also, it was close enough to all of Mr. Maybank's main targets that he would be able to see the destruction with his own eyes without getting involved.

To my surprise, the camp was almost completely empty. Only a few of the soldiers (S-27, S-6, and S-15) were still hanging around, and another person inside a large tent. That had to be Mr. Maybank. Who else could it be?

"Strange…" I murmured. Chase looked at me, so I elaborated. "I expected Mr. Maybank to have more guards."

"Maybe they're out there." Rhyder gestured at the larger part of the city. "Fighting."

"Or maybe they're hiding." Chase, always the strategist. He activated his comm. "Everyone, check in."

I couldn't hear who was talking, or what they were saying, but clearly something was wrong, judging by the frown on Chase's face. "Where's Vivyanna?...Are you sure?...And Derek…Roger that."

"Firefly okay?" Rhyder asked. Chase looked at him. "What? It's better than calling her Vivy."

"I have a feeling that she's going to hate 'Firefly' more." Chase chuckled. "She's fine, just broke her comm set in her fight with Derek."

"Derek, who's dead, right?" Rhyder asked hopefully. Chase grinned.

"He got shish-kabobed by an icicle." He replied. I let out a sigh of relief. Derek was dead. He couldn't come back after any of us now. He was gone.

Chase went back to the people on the comm set, oblivious to my obvious relief at his news. "Alright guys, we've got a little plan going, but we're going to need you guys to keep the rest of the soldiers busy." He paused to hear their responses. "Just do it, Alex. Chase out."

He looked at us. "Let's go."

With that final word, he began leading us towards the camp. Sticking to the sides, we managed to stay out of the soldier's sights. Then we attacked.

I went for S-27, knowing that he would underestimate me. He was strong and cunning, but too confident in his own abilities. He always underestimated his opponents, likely why Mr. Maybank had his on security detail instead of out there fighting. I took him down with easy, knocking him out with a swift, silent hit to the head before slowly lowering him to the ground. I saw the others do the same, keeping their attacks short and silent. Chase pointed at himself, then at Mr. Maybank's tent, then formed a plasma ball in his hands. Rhyder nodded, smirking a bit. Clearly, he'd been waiting for his shot at Mr. Maybank.

Chase stood outside the tent for a moment, concentrating as his plasma ball grew bigger. Then he threw his hands out, the massive ball of energy exploding from his hands. It shot into the tent, right through the center. There was no way Mr. Maybank could have dodged it, no way he could have survived such a hit.

But he did.

"How…" Chase stumbled back, eyes wide with shock as Mr. Maybank stepped out from his tent, the plasma ball perfectly balanced in his hands.

"Did you lose this?" Mr. Maybank smirked before throwing the plasma ball right back at Chase. The genius came back to his senses just in time to hit the dirt, narrowly avoiding losing his head. Mr. Maybank just smirked and threw him back several feet onto the unforgiving earth.

"You have powers?" Rhyder exclaimed, shocked. Mr. Maybank smirked.

"You think I'd just give everyone powers but myself? Clearly, I underestimated your stupidity." Mr. Maybank replied. He glanced at me. "And I see you brought S-1. How lovely for you to join us, traitor."

I stepped back a little, suddenly afraid. I hadn't known about his powers. If I had, I never would have come here, not with just the three of us anyway. I would have told them, would have made Rhyder and Chase wait for the others.

"Hey! Leave her alone, ugly!" Rhyder launched himself at Mr. Maybank, only to be batted away by super-strength. I took advantage of Rhyder's distraction and threw a fireball at him, hoping to catch him off guard. No such luck. He caught it with his bare hands and shot it back at me. It hit me in the chest, knocking me clean off my feet. I hit my head hard against the ground, my vision going black.

I couldn't have been out for more than a few seconds though, because when I opened my eyes, Mr. Maybank was advancing on me. I tried to get away, but the world was spinning so badly that I couldn't even get to my feet.

Rhyder came to my rescue, of course, throwing Mr. Maybank away from me with his psychic abilities. He preoccupied my former leader as strong hands guided me to my feet. "Did you know about his powers?" Chase demanded, steadying me with one hand. I shook my head, instantly regretting it made my stomach churn.

"N-No." I replied. "I didn't, though it makes sense that he would do something like this."

Chase nodded, glancing at Rhyder. He and Mr. Maybank were exchanging psychic blows, neither causing too much damage, but still enough to hurt a lot. "So, what powers does he have? Mine and Vivyanna's?"

"All of them, I'd wager." I replied. Chase frowned at me. "At the beginning, he started giving us everyone's powers. But they were wearing us out too much, so he started giving us only some. Most people have a maximum of three, but the first ten of us have all of them. I wouldn't be surprised if that's when he gave himself powers, so he's likely to have everyone's abilities."

"Right. Awesome." Chase grumbled sarcastically. I nodded at him, then teleported just behind Mr. Maybank. I kicked him at the back of his knees, using a bit of my super strength to send him to the ground. It didn't last long though, as I suddenly found myself flat on the ground, the psychic wave making me eat dirt. I spun around, getting to my feet just in time to be thrown into a wall by another psychic blast. Mr. Maybank glared at me, true hatred in his eyes.

"I should have known you'd betray me. You were always weak." He growled before shooting a blast of icicles the size of baseball bats my way. I closed my eyes, knowing I'd never be able to move in time.

"Ah!" My eyes snapped open at the sound of pain. I gasped, eyes wide with horror when I saw Rhyder hit the ground in front of me, his body slightly curled around his gut. One of the icicles was buried in his abdomen, blood sluggishly dripping from the wound. I fell to my knees, staring at him.

"Rhyder…" I murmured. Why did he do that?

As if reading my mind, the boy smirked weakly. "Promised I wouldn't let him hurt you."

I stared at him, shaking my head. He shouldn't have done that. He deserved to live much more than I did. I reached towards the icicle, only for Chase to stop me. "It's the only thing stopping him from bleeding out." He murmured.

Mr. Maybank stood above us, smirking at the scene. "You see what happens when you oppose me?" He questioned mockingly.

Rage boiled in my stomach, filling every bit of me. How dare he mock us? How dare he hurt us? How dare he do any of this? Maybank was the worst of humanity, the worst of the people that populated our planet. And I wasn't about to let a monster like him win.

"Chase." I said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Form a shield around you and Rhyder and don't drop it until Maybank's dead."

"S-1?" Chase looked at me, confused. I looked back, all my fear gone.

"Just trust me." I told him, getting to my feet. I stepped away from them, giving Chase the space he needed for his force field. Then I started towards Maybank, fire exploding around me.

"You really think you're going to kill me?" He dared to laugh. "Don't be daft, you stupid little girl. You're not strong enough."

"Aren't I?" I challenged, feeling the power swirl within me. "I'm one of the ones who got all the powers. Pyrokinesis, telekinesis, cryokinesis, super strength, super speed…it's all mine to control."

"Using that much power would kill you." He warned, fires surrounding him even as the power within me grew.

"I know. But some things are worth dying for." And with that, I attacked. I charged at him, using both super speed and super strength to propel me towards him. He tried to dodge, but I was faster. I flew at him, throwing both of us through his tent. We hit the ground, a blur of speed and strength and fire.

We blasted shot after shot at each other, each hitting their targets. But I was younger and more durable – after all, I'd been made to fight against powers like these. He hadn't. And I had something to fight for that was stronger than greed – my friends.

After only a few minutes though, I could feel a pain in my head start to grow, and a light-headedness washed over me. But I had to keep going. I couldn't let Maybank win.

I pushed him away, concentrating all my power on him. As the power grew, as the pain in my head grew more noticeable, I thought back to Rhyder and the kindness he'd shown me. I thought back to the trust his friends placed in me. And I thought back to why I had to win – Maybank was evil. And evil could not be allowed to triumph.

"Don't do this, kid." Maybank warned. There was a hint of fear in his voice, mixed in with the anger. I just shook my head.

"Yes, I do." I declared before shooting. The blast was a mix of telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and cryokinesis, creating something akin to pure energy.

The blast shot through him, flinging Maybank a hundred feet away. He landed with a loud thud, not moving. And from where I stood, I was fairly sure he wasn't even breathing. I let out a shaky breath, a sense of victory flooding through me.

Then, my brain exploded.

**Chase's POV**

I watched in shock as S-1's blast hit Maybank square in the chest. The blast threw him back several feet, the explosion from the impact hitting everything within contact. Luckily, it bounced harmlessly off my force field and didn't seem to touch S-1, but it destroyed everything in its path.

I waited a few seconds, part of me expecting Maybank to get up, part of me knowing that he never would. Then, after a shaky nod from a pale Rhyder, I lowered the force field and approached Maybank.

His body was mutilated with burns and gashes. The form was covered in blood from head to toe, his eyes staring sightlessly at the smoke filled sky. I didn't even need to check for a pulse to know that we was dead.

"S-1!" I barely heard Rhyder's soft cry, and I wouldn't have if not for my bionic hearing. I spun around just in time to see the former soldier crumble to the ground. I raced to her, hitting my knees near her head and checked her over.

Physically, there weren't many injuries, but it was obvious that she had pushed herself to far. Each breath was too shallow, too weak, her eyes only partially open. A stream of blood still poured from her nose, staining the skin around her mouth. I took her wrist, feeling her pulse get weaker and weaker.

"C'mon, stay with me." I murmured, seeing her eyelids flutter. "Stay awake, S-1."

Her eyes, watery and glassy with pain, tried to focus on me. "That's it. You're going to be okay. Didn't Rhyder say we'd protect you? You're going to be fine."

I was lying through my teeth, and we both knew it. She was growing weaker by the second, and there was nothing anyone could do.

"'s he…de'd?" She gasped weakly. I nodded quickly.

"Yes. You got him. You saved us." I promised. "You did great, S-1."

She smiled, revealing blood-stained teeth. "Worth it…"

Her face became lax, her eyes shutting for what I knew was the last time. She took one last breath, and then stilled.

I sat there, staring down at her body. I'd hardly known her, had only spoken to her a few times, yet I felt the pain of her death so harshly. It wasn't right that she died. It wasn't right that Mr. Davenport died. It wasn't right that Adam died. None of this was right. How could the world come to this? Senseless violence and bloody deaths? How could that be my world?

Had it not been for these powers, the ones that the soldiers had, that Derek had, that ANY of us had, then things would have been different. Nobody would have died. Everyone would be okay. My family would still be intact. S-1 could have lived a normal life. Vivyanna, Alex, Roxanna, and Rhyder never would have been subjected to the horrors of the Facility. Hell, Mira would even be alive.

Powers, bionics, abilities, that's what started all of this. That's the reason the world had come to this. If only we could find a way to make sure nothing like this ever happened again…

"Chase." I looked up, dragged out of my thoughts by the sound of my name. Above me stood the rest of my team. Bree, holding her shoulder in obvious pain. Alex, worn and exhausted. Roxanna, with a slight limp. Marcus, one arm wrapped around his waist with a pained grimace on his face. And Vivyanna, my beautiful Vivyanna, blood covering half her face. They were all hurt, but very much alive. And they would live. I would make sure that so long as we were together, no one else would ever be killed by something like this.

I gave them all a grim look. "It's over."


	14. The End of the Beginning

**Vivyanna's POV**

The sight before us was a horrific one. The base camp was demolished, almost as if a nuke had gone off. Maybank's body, burned and all but destroyed, lay abandoned off to the side. Rhyder lay on the ground, conscious but badly wounded. S-1 was dead, Chase kneeling beside her body with a grim look on his face.

"Chase." I called gently. He looked up at me, at all of us, and gave us a grim look.

"It's over."He announced, his voice rough. And all at once, the weight from our shoulders lifted. I didn't even realize I was moving until I stumbled into Chase's arms, gripping the back of his shirt. "It's over." He breathed, almost in shock. "It's over."

"Yeah, it finally is." Everything was done. Every last connection to the Facility was gone, leaving nothing but the good that came from it. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" Chase echoed. Yep, definitely shock. Not that I blamed him. "Yeah, just a little bruised. What about you?" He snapped back to his senses, checking my face. I shook my head.

"Nothing a nice hot shower won't fix." I replied, letting go of him. I looked over at Rhyder, who was slowly being raised off the ground by Marcus and Roxanna. "Rhyder?"

He didn't answer, his eyes trained of S-1. God, it had been so obvious that he'd cared for her. In fact, in another world, something might have happened between them, but now…

"We're going to bring him to Sarah for first aid." Roxanna explained. Bree looked sadly at S-1.

"What about her?"She asked, grief in her voice.

"We should bury her." Chase murmured. I shook my head, pushing away from him slightly.

"No." To my surprise, my voice was oddly steady. "No."

"What?" Alex looked at me, confused.

"The other soldiers are going to be buried, the dead ones." I told them. "But she's not a solider, not anymore. She doesn't belong with them."

"So? What are you thinking?"Bree looked at me.

"Cremation." It was the highest sign of respect I could think of, to make sure she wasn't buried alongside those she saved us from. Bree nodded.

"I agree." She replied.

"Same here." Marcus agreed.

"Do it." Rhyder's voice was broken, but the look he gave me wasn't. "She deserves this, at the very least."

"Alright." I raised my hands and let her body go up in flames. Fire had always been a sign of life – in fact, fire had more life in it than most people I'd ever met. I wasn't sure whether I believed in an afterlife or not, but if there was one, I hoped she'd end up somewhere nice.

We could all sense the eyes watching, all of the New York, maybe even the world, watching the freaks with powers, but this moment of grieving was ours alone.

**Two Weeks Later…**

Little had changed since Maybank's attack of New York. The authorities were still trying to clean up the mess made by the soldiers and trying to calm down the general public, though they weren't having much luck in that department. They'd seen super-powered teens take on an army of super-powered soldiers. Though saying it aloud made it sound like the plot of some movie, humanity was now being forced to face the truth: that people like us existed among them. Yep, that definitely sounded like an X-Men movie.

People seemed to be of mixed opinions of us. It was obvious that they didn't like that some people out there had strange new abilities, but most people seemed to recognize that we were trying to help. That we did help. We were quickly becoming local celebrities, though Chase estimated that things would cool down eventually.

For the time being though, we'd all decided to try and hide away from the public eye, renting hotel rooms and not leaving unless absolutely necessary. Things were still rough – most of had been injured during the fight and not all of us were fully recovered yet – so it seemed like a good idea.

Alex was watching the TV religiously, always being delighted when we were mentioned. It was so obvious that he was proud of us, and he had every right to be. Leo sat next to him on the bed, looking both bored and frustrated. It was unfortunate, but because of the damage done to his right arm during the explosion, he'd had to have it amputated. He wasn't enjoying it very much, not that I could blame him, but Chase and Marcus were already discussing options for prosthetics. I tried to stay out of those conversations once I heard their plans to make this prosthetic arm a little 'special' with a few new features similar to Chase and Marcus' abilities. As the android put it, "if you're going to have a metal arm, you should at least have a cool metal arm." Whatever that meant.

Bree seemed pretty bored too. She was restless, and obviously hated being confined to the hotel. She was pacing constantly, never staying still for too long. Roxanna was the same, though she managed to entertain herself by creating mini ice sculptures on the table and tossing them into the bathtub when they started to melt.

Rhyder was pretty quiet, not really talking much to anyone. He was eating when food was given to him, and sleeping when he was tired, but he really didn't do much else. It was painfully clear that S-1's death had hit him hard, especially since he promised her that he'd look after her. No one knew what to say to him, but Roxy had gone out of her way to make sure he knew he could talk to her if he felt like it.

As for Chase, he was pretty much the same, though he made it very clear that he didn't like that the world knew about us. He kept going on and on about how this was dangerous for us and how the government had no idea how to properly deal with people like us because they'd never dealt with people with powers before.

He also blamed everything that had happened on our powers. Not on us specifically, but powers in general. And though I could see where he was coming from – our lives would be very different had we never had these abilities – I thought he was going about it all wrong. Yes, in the wrong hands these powers were dangerous, but in the right one, they could be used to help people. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't about to put on tights and a cape and start saving kittens from trees, but I would be the first to point out that it wasn't the powers that were dangerous, it was the people. Our powers were just the tools we were given to help us achieve success in life.

It was one of the few things Chase and I really disagreed on, but I figured over time it would just be forgotten about. I mean after all, with Maybank and Derek gone, why would we really need to use our powers again? I mean, it's one thing for me to boil water with my fires instead of using the stove, or Bree speeding across the hotel room, but when would we need to use our powers for real, for something this big again? Never, probably. We could probably just go have normal lives now, without having to think about the past ever again.

It was around noon, judging by the radio clock on the bedside table. Chase and I were in our hotel bed, watching TV when I suddenly remembered something.

"Hey." I grabbed the remote, pausing the TV. Chase frowned and looked at me, his arm still around my waist.

"What's wrong?" He asked quietly, not wanting to disturb Alex, who'd decided to take an afternoon nap in the bed across from us.

"What were you going to tell me that day?" I asked. He frowned.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He replied. I twisted around to face him, a playful smirk on my face.

"Yes you do. Right before I went to go fight Derek, you were going to tell me something. But you said you'd wait until later, and I guess we both forgot."

"Well, it has been crazy." He chuckled. I nodded, still smirking.

"So, what were you going to tell me?" I asked, leaning in closer. He smirked.

"You already know." He commented.

"Yeah, but I'd still like to hear it." I murmured.

"I love you." He whispered.

"I love you too." I whispered back. Suddenly, the TV changed to another news story about…well, us.

"God, I hate this." He complained, reaching for the remote. "There's got to be something I can do about this."

"Chase, the world knows about us now. Who we are, what we can do." I looked at him, worried. "Nothing is ever going to be the same again. You do know that, right? There's nothing you can do."

"Watch me." He replied, looking at me. "I'll figure something out. Make sure nothing like this ever happens again."

I chuckled. "You're cute when you act all tough."

He grinned, leaning in for a kiss. Our lips were only a few millimetres apart when-

_KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!_

"Oh come on!" I exclaimed, pulling back. Who the hell could that be?

Alex woke up at my explanation, Bree, Marcus, Roxy, Leo, and Rhyder coming out from the adjoining room.

"Who's that?" Rhyder asked, looking confused. Chase frowned and untangled himself from the sheets, heading towards the door. I got up, brushing off my shirt and jeans before following him.

Chase opened the door to reveal a tall brown haired man in a suit. "Yeah?" Chase asked, looking at him. The man strode into our hotel room, looking us over.

"So you're those kids who stopped the army?" He questioned. "Impressive."

"Thanks. Who the hell are you?" I demanded. For some reason, I didn't like the looks of this guy. He looked at me.

"Are you the leader?" He asked.

"No, I am." Chase intervened before I could respond. "But you can answer her question."

"I'm Special Agent Graham." He introduced himself. "On behalf of the city, I'd like to thank you for your service. What you did came at a great risk to yourselves and we'd like to show our gratitude."

"You're welcome." Chase replied, sounding a little surprised. None of us expected to be thanked.

"I'd also like to offer you all job positions…" Why did I have such a bad feeling about this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where will our heroes go from here? Pick up their tale in The Return of Heroes


End file.
